















































•- c~ jy .•••'. •> v % 




P- C- 



•U 

r ' m £*' c^ 

<•*5 -> Q aV-* 

* ■€? ^ £ft|Vr2, 4 V 

d* i V v 

c. -. .^* .0* % * 



° 

/ V V* • 

4^ <v '«>••• a> v "o, *'Ttt* w a 

* J* % c° -^v. °o <** ,.'• ** 

'£d^~\ <u. 0 <t n./ - 




' *° ■’■^ .. 

V *^’V° **„ '*..« 

• ^ 'jnnl' ^ 

.* IW: ^ % 

"'•''^TT 4 ' A <, *'•..** .6* 

- c° v °o ^ ,o* .*.?*. 

^>- - « ^jooAn'V* a" * MPfll/Z&u • 'f'j 


«t*. 0 < 


/ °* * 
r o 


^ o ^ * 

o # * o«' «$* * 



, * v*cr 



: y ^ . __ 

.' A o ‘,w, 

A- •»♦.,.■> ^ °t, •’•■'• 

- » .V*^ *-J TUf ,frtiT * ^ V • * # °* C- < 

• ^ ' *U> A* *«. ^ 

I - ‘aSK* 4* ^ 

*77** yV <^ *o.. * ,,0" 'o 

O " • M *>y .«V’ 





* <£> ^ 


• ^ *♦ ^ 

: t* - 

r &° 4 °o <** ,>;^. \ c° . 4 J^% 

■^O 4 “«3s?lH* v oV* * •* - 



- C - - 

* ^ 4 > '^wpg^ * 

<? , • A 

Xj ♦ • * \ ' 

^ A> 









♦« 

ftV o • * 0 

m 

% ^ cy %W/ Q 0 

©*. «. v > v *\*L/«. v ****** c* *9 r • 

’*: \/ £gjfc V** / 

>/ ** v % ; .f$^ /\ #5# \ 

* A O -?.?• *G* V <V O 





* %£, <e 

- v- o Y 

w «, ’ 4 o l * <Q V*. 

V**> % ‘^>°.. v*^* ^ 

> *> \> ,"■>. o. .0 > 

S ' “W^ '^S^i 0 . V4 

*' : WcM ? . .v*. ; 


; 


< 1 / ^ • 

.* &*• % <\ 
aO* .iL* •.”*<?, 



* ^ A 

: v«y 



<A '° * ‘ 

. • - * 

% _/*■**_ « v*_ 


„ * A if* _ _ 

* «£> ^ * k 

4 _<c v ti» +* 


• * 


4 w O, 

r 0 * * °! # <* "*0 

C, ** O 




















THE LAST INCARNATION. 








' 







, 
















































the 




LAST INCARNATION. 


GOSPEL LEGENDS' 


THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

BY Ar€ONSTANT. 


TRANSLATED BY 

FRANCIS GEO. SHAW. 

% 



BOSTON: 

W. D. TICKNOR & CO. 


1848. 


The Library 
of Congress 


7 



WASHINGTON 

—-— --t 


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by 

FRANCIS GEO. SHAW, 

in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 


1V' 

i r 7 ’ 4 ' 



R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER &. STEREOTYPKR, 
112 FULTON STREET. 












M VGr llliz>S~ 


THE LAST INCARNATION, 


PROLOGUE. 


I. 

“ ^ WILL not leave you fatherless,” said the Christ, when about 
to quit the earth ; il I will come again to you.” 

Ye people, who have believed in the words of the Christ, and 
who still await a consoler, know that the Christ, your Saviour, has 
never abandoned you. Know that he suffers with you, that he 
labors with you, that he groans, and that he prays with you. 

The Christ is the human form of the divine idea. That form 
you are all called upon to realize, and to clothe yourselves anew 
with its royal majesty. 

A model has been given to us in the person of Jesus, our brother, 
the head and the mediator of humanity, in whom God himself 
lived, willed and acted, so that his person was that of the Man- 
God. 

Now, Jesus, the Man-God, did not accomplish life in all its 
phases; he went through only the sorrowful periods here below. 

Because it was necessary that humanity should first learn how 
to'suffer, in order to know how to be happy afterwards ,* should 
know how to obey, in order to learn howto reign. It'was to holy 
and austere poverty that was intrusted the education of the heirs 
of God, in order that through privations they might learn the true 
use of their Father’s riches. 

In teaching men to love their neighbor more than themselves, 
and their soul more than their body, and God more than their 
soul, the Christ emancipated them from the servitude of the flesh, 
and he elevated the flesh itself by calling it to share the glory of 
free souls. 


6 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


The Christ did not limit his word to an exclusive form; the 
spirit of which it contains the germ is universal. 

He sowed the seed, and time has ripened the grain. 

The word of the Christ, like that of the ancient prophets, has 
had unintelligent and self-interested interpreters, who have wished 
to seal it like the stone of his sepulchre. 

But the word traverses stones, and cannot be kept captive; it 
escapes in spite of walls; it passes in spite of gates of iron ; it 
goes forth in spite of sentinels. 

Brothers, the word of the Christ is the word of liberty, of 
equality, of fraternity. 

Of liberty, because he has told us not to fear those who can 
kill the body, and to preserve before God the independence of 
our souls. 

Of equality, because he has said to us: you have all only one 
and the same father, one and the same master: he is God, and 
you are all brothers ! 

Of fraternity, because he has told the strong to be the pro¬ 
tectors of the weak, the learned to instruct the ignorant, the rich 
to provide for the necessities of the poor. 

This word presided at first over the construction of the hier¬ 
archical body of the primitive church; then the priests were 
fathers chosen by the people ; the bishops were superintendents, 
who took care of the poor, and who protected the orphans and the 
widows; and all, from a spirit of conciliation and peace, referred 
their differences to a single judge chosen from among themselves, 
and who was therefore called the servant of the servants of God. 

Oh! how beautiful was the Church then, in the unity of her 
head and in the harmony of her members ! How grand was that 
society of brothers, presided over by its fathers, and administered 
by its old men ! 

The unity of object, and the simplicity of means, found a use 
for the co-operation of each in the work of all; each group of the 
faithful moved harmoniously around its centre, like the satellites 
around their planets, which themselves move peacefully around 
their sun. 

For then the interest of the pastors was that of their flocks, and 
the demon of avarice, which destroyed Judas, had not yet brought 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


7 


trouble into the sanctuary; pride had not yet transformed the 
charges of charity into prerogatives and worldly grandeurs, and 
the rival passions had not divided the inheritance of the Lord. 

But, in order that it might be overcome by good, evil had to be 
manifested; and the Christian law was as a snare spread for the 
errors and the irregularities of the flesh. 

Human vices, by manifesting themselves in the Church of the 
Christ, condemned themselves; therefore they were not able to 
prevail there even for a few moments, but by means of hypocrisy 
and lying. 

When misguided pontiffs surpassed the luxury and the inso¬ 
lence of kings, the spirit of the Church, which has never ceased 
to be that of the Christ, groaned in the heart of the saints, and 
condemned the sacrilegious usurpers, by always reminding the 
sovereign pontiff that he was the servant of the servants of God. 

When the inquisition tortured souls and bodies, to constrain 
that which God himself respects in man,—liberty of conscience, 
the spirit of the Christ wept over the victims, and justly excom¬ 
municated the persecutors, by protesting that the Church has a 
horror of blood. . 

Thus, by their very crimes, the priests have shown more mag¬ 
nificently and more splendidly how holy is religion ! 

Now the Church seems to sleep a sleep of death, because the 
priests have separated themselves from the people, and form a 
caste apart, imbued with pharisaical traditions and the prejudices 
of education ; but the Church cannot be separated from humanity. 
If the priests remain stationary while humanity advances, it is 
because they wish soon to separate themselves from the religion 
of the Christ, for the spirit of the Saviour of the people advances 
with the people. 

Those men have grown old, without being able to free their 
feet from the swaddling bands of their earliest infancy ! They 
believe in the Gospel, without interrogating its admirable sym¬ 
bolism, and they admit its marvels literally, as little children give 
faith to the fantastic stories of the woman who rocks them. 

They are the guardians of the doctrine after the manner of the 
sentinels of kings’ palaces; they defend the entrance, and never 
go in themselves. The dead letter has remained in their hands, 


8 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


as the mortal body of the Christ remained in the arms of his 
weeping mother, under the lowering and gloomy sky of Calvary ; 
but the spirit has gone to make war on the powers of darkness, 
to break the gates of hell, and to deliver the groaning crowd of 
captive souls. 

Everywhere the spirit of the Gospel makes conquests, except 
in the closed minds and frozen hearts of those who call themselves 
the depositaries of the Gospel. 

The sciences gravitate towards their grand synthesis; unity 
governs all ideas, and harmony arranges them in a marvellous 
order ; analogy gives to faith, enlightened by science, the key of 
all problems ; synthesis brings together all symbols, and proclaims 
religious unity by the voice of all ages; the truly Catholic idea 
merely begins to be born, and those old men are there, stopping 
their ears, closing their eyes, making themselves motionless upon 
the ruins of the past, like urns upon graves! 

Well then, since those who should teach the people have no 
longer any voice, since the Word has no longer any need of them 
for interpreters, let us borrow a new gospel legend from the 
genius of the people, and from their aspirations after humanitary 
progress ! 

Let us complete the epopoeia of the Christ by the allegorical 
recital of his second coming, and let us relate his triumphs to 
those who have wept so much over his sorrows. 


II. 

The Son of God is the perfect man; he is the idea of human 
perfection manifested by the Word and realized by works. 

God utters from all eternity the word that must save the people; 
and humanity works and advances in progress, only to realize 
that word. 

The divine idea of human perfection was realized in different 
degrees in all the great men who were the heads and models of 
humanity; then it was completed and summed up in Jesus. 

For Jesus, having given himself entire to humanity, by a 
devotedness without bounds, has transmitted his life entire, under 



THE LAST INCARNATION. 


9 


the symbols of the fraternal bread and the wine of union, to the 
whole of humanity, which he has thus formed into a single body. 

So that now the Christ is no longer an individual; he is a 
people. 

He lives in all those who are animated by the spirit of the 
Gospel ; he speaks by the mouth of all those who utter a word 
conformable to his. 

He has promised that the reign of intelligence should be his 
reign, and that his second coming should bring down the clouds 
from heaven, that is to say, should free religion from its mysteries 
and its fables. 

He must shine as the lightning, which shines from the east 
even to the west ;• and the eagles of genius must gather together 
to reply to his call. 

Let this book then be the last legend of Jesus, the son of Mary. 
Let us cause his sweet and divine figure to descend from heaven 
and traverse the earth, assuming all forr^s, as in the marvellous 
stories of the middle ages, in order to give instruction to all, and 
to prepare for his great coming ! 

Let the people read and at last understand truth under the form 
of allegories ; let it recognise and love always its Saviour and its 
model, in the person of the proletary of Galilee. 

We shall borrow from the ancient gospel legend its simple and 
popular form ; for he who speaks to all must use language which 
may be understood by all. 


FIRST LEGEND. 

THE LITTLE CHILD WHO SEEKS HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER. 

At that time there was a little child who walked all alone in the 
country, and who seated himself by the side of the road and 
cried. 

His poor bare little feet were swollen and sore; his shaking 
little hands were blue with cold ; for it was at the end of autumn, 
1 * 



10 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


and the north wind whirled about the last yellow leaves of the 
stripped trees. 

He was barely covered by a poor little dress of thin white 
woollen stuff, and the frost of the morning which had been melted 
from the trees by the pale sun, had wet the curls of his blond 
hair with a freezing rain. 

There was an inexpressible sweetness in his eyes full of tears ; 
and while his eyes wept, his little shivering mouth seemed to try 
to smile. 

He rested for a moment, then he clasped his hands as if in 
prayer, and courageously resumed his walk. 

And to all those who passed and who asked him why he cried, 
the poor child answered : “ I am seeking my father and my 
mother.” 

Now, on that day a young and rich lady was returning in a 
carriage from her beautiful country seat. 

She was magnificer^ly arrayed and voluptuously perfumed; 
seated upon soft cushions covered with silk, she was sad and dis¬ 
gusted with life : for God had not made her a mother. 

She saw the little child who was walking with bare feet and 
who was cold, and she felt her heart moved at the sight of his 
wonderful beauty. 

Then she stopped her carriage, and having called the poor little 
traveller, she said to him : “ Where are you going ?” 

“Iam going to seek my father and my mother,” replied the 
little child. 

“ And where will you find your father and your mother ? Are 
they far from here ?” 

“ They are travellers like me upon the earth; and while I 
seek them here, perhaps they are seeking me further off, with 
much anxiety and sorrow.” 

“ How long since did you leave them ?” 

“ I did not leave them, they went away from me to work, in 
order that they might get food for me. But, perhaps, they may 
not have been able to find bread for their work, and have gone 
still further; then perhaps still further off, and I have remained 
an orphan‘because my parents were poor.” 

“Well! I am rich, and I wish to be a mother to you in order 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


11 


to help you to find yours ; get up into my carriage, and you will 
be sheltered from the cold wind which freezes your hands, and 
you will rest your poor bruised feet.” 

“ Thank you, madam, but you cannot be a mother to me unless 
you are like my mother, and unless you do in her place what she 
would do in yours. For to fulfil the duties of a mother it is 
necessary to have the heart of a mother : and for that you must 
be very pure before God and before men. 

“ Your face is beautiful like my mother’s, and your voice is 
sweet like hers ; but tell me if your heart is like hers, and if your 
works are such as she would do if she were fortunate and rich 
like you.” 

“ Child, your language astonishes me ; who can have sug¬ 
gested such words to you ? I do not know your mother, and I 
cannot tell you if my heart is like hers. But get up beside me, and 
then you shall tell me what I ought to do in order to resemble her.” 

“ A mother does not say to the little forsaken child at her feet: 
Come to me : for perhaps the child cannot climb up to her. She 
descends and inclines herself towards him, as our Father who 
is heaven inclines himself towards his smallest creatures: the 
heart of mothers is like the heart of God.” 

“ Little child, your words have in them something which of¬ 
fends me ; I have never been a mother because I am rich, and 
because I wait for a husband who can give me a fortune equal to 
my own. I offer you a place by my side, and I am very willing 
to extend my hand to you to help you to climb up here; why do 
you wish me to get down and to soil my feet in the damp sand ?” 

“ Because you spoke to me of taking the place of my mother; 
and my mother, in order to take me in her arms, was never 
afraid of soiling her feet. When my mother made me sit by her 
side, it was not from pity, it was with the joy of a tender love. 
I pity you, because you are rich, and because you are afraid 
of the dampness of the road ; for the rich cushions on which you 
sit are perhaps wet with the tears of the poor man and the sweat 
of the workman. I prefer to continue my painful journey rather 
than to take a seat by your side.” 

The young woman’ blushed, and, without replying, made a 
sign to her servants to go on. The carriage soon left the child 


12 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


far behind. The woman had her heart oppressed, and regretted 
that she had thus abandoned him; but her pride had been 
wounded. She asked herself who that extraordinary child could 
be; then she fell into a great sadness and wept. 

But soon she dried her tears, at the thought that they might 
injure the beauty of her eyes ; and in order to distract her mind, 
she began to dream of balls and brilliant paVties. 

Still the little child had remained upon the road and walked on. 

After the beautiful lady, it was a rich cavalier who passed ; 
he did not even look at the young pilgrim, whom his horse almost 
ran over, and he continued his course. 

Then came an old man clothed in black, who walked slowly, 
moving his lips and looking upon the pages of a book ; it was a 
priest much respected in the neighborhood and scrupulously at¬ 
tached to the duties of his profession; he did not love children 
much, because he had no family, having grown old in the austerity 
of his holy ministry ; he stopped, and looking at the little travel¬ 
ler, he said to him : 

“ To what parish do you belong ?” 

“ To all parishes,” replied the child, “ for I have no fixed 
abode. I seek my parents, and I am like them a wanderer on 
the earth.” 

“ Your parents are vagabonds,” said the old priest with a ges¬ 
ture of disdain. 

“ My parents are poor.” 

“ Here,” said the priest, and he threw a piece of money upon 
the road. 

“ Thank you,” said the child, “ I did not ask you for alms. I 
seek my father.” 

“ l do not know him,” said the pastor. 

“ I know that very well, for you cannot know what a father is. 
Keep your alms, and may the feeling of compassion which you 
have had towards me soften your heart and make you understand 
why you say in the prayer: « Our Father who art in heaven V ” 

“ Child, with what pride do you presume to give lessons to an 
old man and a pastor ? You have, doubtless, been brought up in 
impiety, and your parents are not Christians.” 

“ You ought not to speak to me so of my parents, you ought to 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


13 


teach me to respect them. They have brought me up in the love 
and in the thought of the Lord. I do not give lessons to an old 
man, and I answer him because he spoke to me. You are a 
priest, and by that title you are the guide of children; neverthe¬ 
less, instead of assisting me to find the parents whom I seek, you 
insult them before me by a shameful suspicion, in supposing that 
they have brought me up in impiety: can I approve what you 
say, when you speak neither according to charity nor according 
to justice ?” 

“ Where are we ?” cried the terrified priest; “ this child is 
doubtless possessed by a demon, and it is on this account that he 
answers with so much audacity and malice.” 

“ I am not possessed by a demon, but God permits a child to 
speak with the facility and the boldness of a man: can a special 
gift of God be a crime ?” 

“ It is the child of some hardened heretic, and he repeats what 
he has h<^rd,” said the old pastor shaking his head, as if he talked 
to himself. 

“ Yes, I repeat what I have heard from the very mouth of my 
father.” 

“ And what is your father’s name ?” 

“ Tell me what is the name of our Father who is in heaven.” 

“ In that case then you would be the child of God ?” 

“ It is you who say it and who teach children to say it when 
you make them repeat: ‘ Our Father who art in heaven.’ ” 

“ My little friend, you are a reasoner, and that does not become 
childhood.” 

“ Reason becomes every age; but old age gives no right to 
impose silence on a child when he says nothing but what is re¬ 
spectful and just, in order to reply when he is questioned.” 

“ All is lost,” murmured the old priest to himself, “ the country 
children dispute with us. All belief is departing.” 

And resuming the absent reading of his book, he again moved 
his lips, continued his route, and forgot the travelling child. 

Still the night was near, and the little child remaining alone 
upon the road, walked, and wept, and prayed always. 

Then a poor woman, dragging a faggot of bushes, was going 
towards her hovel; she saw the child and had compassion on 


14 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


him, for she was a mother; she questioned him and took him by 
the hand, then she said to him : “ Come to my hut, you shall 
warm yourself with my children, and you shall share with them 
the bread which I will give them ; to-morrow I will lead you to 
the neighboring city, and we will look” for your parents.” 

The child, looking then at the poor woman, loved her; be¬ 
cause she was bent under a burden, and because she had said to 
him: “ Come, and you shall be as one of my children.” 

“Let us go,” Said he to her; “and for the bread which you 
shall give me, I will give you the food which preserves the soul 
for eternal life.” 

But the woman of the people did not understand what he said 
to her, and they arrived together at the hovel. 

The children of the poor woman were seated round the fire : 
they did not rise to go and meet their mother, neither did they 
make a place for the unknown child. 

Then their mother, raising her hand upon them, struck them; 
but the newly come child began to weep and said to the mother : 
“ You do not know how to be a mother, and yet you had bowels 
of compassion for the child who suffered. Therefore you shall 
be saved on account of the visit I make to this house, but your 
children will be the affliction of your old age.” 

“ If that be so,” said the woman, “ 1 should like it as well if 
God would take them out of the world.” 

Hardly had she uttered these words, when the oldest of her 
children breathed a sigh and died ; then she rushed to him, and 
took him in her arms sobbing. 

Then she said to the unknown child: 

“ Go away! go away! Have you come here to make my 
children die ?” 

“ Woman, learn to bring them up better, if you wish them to 
live ! However, I have pity on your grief: be consoled, your 
son is living.” 

The young boy who had just died then opened his eyes, as if 
he woke out of sleep, and the terrified mother cast herself on her 
knees, for she knew that the travelling child must be Jesus Christ 
himself. 

The divine little child then smiled upon her, drew from his 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


15 


bosom a little cross which he gave to her, again advised her to 
bring up her children better, and disappeared. 

That evening he was seen at a short distance from there, upon 
the bank of a stream which was crossed by a plank placed on 
two stones ; the child was seated in the moonlight, the wind 
raised his blond hair, and he pressed his two little arms crossed 
upon his breast, as if to warm himself. Some one asked him in 
passing what he was waiting for. He replied : 

“ I am waiting for my father.’’ 

Soon afterwards, a poor blind old man came to cross, and he 
directed his steps towards* the bridge of the stream, by feeling 
with his stick along the rough and stony ground. 

Then the child rose, and running to meet the poor blind man, 
he took him by the hand and led him, for the road in that place 
was dangerous and broken. 

Then placing the hand of the old man on his shoulder, he 
served him for a support as far as the neighboring city, which 
they entered without being seen. 

The child conducted the old man to his dwelling, but he was 
not willing to enter, for he said to him : 

“ My mother is waiting for me.” 

And in one of the most retired suburbs of the city he went and 
rapped softly at the door of a house which was carefully closed. 

“ Who is there ?” asked a woman’s voice, the accent of which 
was profoundly desolate. 

“ It is your son ; open,” said the little child. 

“ My son will not come back again,” said the voice, “ he died 
yesterday, and to-day he was put into the ground.” 

“ Open to me,” replied the child, “ I am Jesus, the friend of 
those who weep, and I have made myself once more a little child, 
in order to restore to you him whom you think you have lost! 
Open to me ! for Mary, my celestial mother, holds your little 
child upon her knees, in the paradise of innocence; and she 
sends hers to you that you may be very sure that he whom you 
love is very happy.” 

Then the door opened softly and the child entered; he seated 
himself oil the knees of the poor mother, and related to her how 


16 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


he had come, and how he had tried the hearts of those whom he 
had met on his route. 

Then the mother having ceased weeping, asked him if those 
who had met him without knowing him would be punished for 
not having assisted him. 

“ They will be sufficiently punished when they shall know 
that it^ was I,” replied Jesus. “And they will know it when 
they begin to become better; for the regret of a good deed is the 
greatest punishment for not having done it. I revisit the earth 
to try and to console. So long as I still retain the form of a 
child, I shall seek my father and my mother. But as perhaps 
no one yet knows how to accomplish all his duties towards a 
child, I shall first give the example of accomplishing those of a 
child. I shall not again find my father and my mother here 
below; but I will choose them from among those who have need 
of a child to love them. The blind man whom I can guide to 
prevent him from stumbling over the stones of the road shall be 
my father, the poor widow who weeps, and whom I can console, 
shall be my mother, and the deserted orphans who have no one 
to love them shall be my brothers and my sisters.” 


SECOND LEGEND. 

THE SAME CHILD AND THE SAME PRIESTS, AFTER AN INTERVAL OF 
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS. 

The Christ appeared to sleep in the house of the poor widow ; 
but during the hours of night, his soul returned to heaven, in 
order not to see the crimes of earth. 

He revisited the paradise of innocence, and caressed his new 
brother, the widow’s son, to whom he spoke of his poor mother, 
now less desolate : the soul of the Christ loves to rest in heaven 
among little children, and to resume all the infantile graces 
which filled the soul of Mary with so sorrowful a happiness, 
when, in the midst of the caresses of her well-beloved son, she 



THE LAST INCARNATION. 


17 


had a presentiment of the anguish of Calvary ! Now the celes¬ 
tial virgin no longer fears that her tender child may die a second 
time, and she knows that henceforth he will no more be taken 
from her; nevertheless, the ecstasy of her happiness is still 
imbued with a remembrance full of melancholy; and the joy of 
the formerly sorrowful mother* remains in a concentration which 
resembles sadness. 

“ Mother,” said Jesus to her, “ now that I am no longer a 
mortal man, but a human form of the divine idea, I can descend 
upon the earth without suffering there, and without ceasing to be 
near you! I will assume, to instruct men, the appearances of 
childhood, of weakness, of suffering; I have already begun to 
appear to them under the figure of a child, only they will no 
longer see either my birth or my death. I shall go through all 
the phases of life in my appearances, and will transfigure myself, 
as my doctrine must be transfigured: will you, O my mother, 
also be willing to speak sometimes to those who are likewise 
your children ?” 

“ It shall be done according to your will, my sweet lord and 
son,” said Mary, kissing him on the forehead. “ I know that if 
you are the type of the perfect man, I must serve as a model of 
the woman and the mother; my heart never leaves you, O my 
son! I shall be near you when you again traverse the 
earth; if it be necessary to manifest to men my symbolical 
form, you have only to will, and I shall appear to them. Go, 
therefore, and do according to your desire ; for already the sun 
has reappeared upon the earth, where your human appearance 
now rests asleep: the hours pass quickly in heavenly conversa¬ 
tions, and do you go now and wake again upon the earth, my beau¬ 
tiful beloved child!” 

The sun began to raise the greyish veil which covered the 
black bell-towers, the bluish domes, and the moist roofs of the 
city in which the divine child slept. 

The poor widow had already risen, and, looking upon the Son 
of God as he slept, she thought she again saw her child for 
whom she had wept so much. 


* Mater dolorosa 


18 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


He rose; and both together prayed to our Father who is in 
heaven. 

Then the Saviour said to the woman :— 

“ Mother, I am going now where the service of my father calls 
me. I shall come back this evening, therefore weep no more.” 

The widow fell upon her knees, and dared not retain him. It 
was now broad daylight, and Jesus having gone out, walked 
through the streets of the city. 

Then the children of the people, seeing his beauty, his gentle¬ 
ness, and his strange dress, began to follow after him, mocking 
him; and Jesus continued on his way without looking at them 
and without uttering a word. 

But he groaned in himself, and he prayed while he said: 
“ How shall these arrive at the knowledge of their rights, if they 
grow up thus in insolence, and in the forgetfulness of fraternity ! 
Poor children of the people, your greatest misfortune is not pover¬ 
ty, it is ignorance and brutishness ! Happy will he be who shall 
teach you your duties, and shall make you love them. For you 
will then know your rights, and virtue will make you free.” 

Then one of those children, more wicked than the others, and 
irritated because Jesus answered nothing, approached him with 
an insolent air, and struck him. 

Jesus stopped him, and said to him with gentleness: 

“ What have I done to you ? It is not I who will return to 
you the evil that you do to me, but others will return it to you. 
For you are wicked, and the world, which is wicked like you, 
will return to you evil for evil.” 

Having said these words, the child Jesus disappeared from the 
midst of the children of the people, and all searched for him with 
astonished eyes. 

Now, in the porch of a neighboring temple, other children 
were seated, and a priest, standing in the midst, instructed them. 

Jesus came and took a seat among the children, and listened 
to the priest. 

Then, when the priest had finished speaking, he questioned the 
children ; and having come to Jesus, he asked him : “ What is 
God ?” 

“ God alone can himself say what he is,” replied the child : 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


19 


“ but you could not understand his words, for they would be in¬ 
finite and eternal.” 

“ That is not rightly answered,” said the priest; “ you should 
say, God is a spirit, eternal, independent, unchangeable and 
infinite, who is present everywhere, who sees everything, who 
can do everything, who has created all things, and who governs 
all things.” 

“ I do not understand,” said the child Jesus. “ You say that 
God is a spirit; are there then several spirits like unto God ? 
Why do you not say that God is spirit? And then I should 
ask you if God is spirit only ? is he not love and power ?” 

“ I do not understand in my turn,” said the priest. 

“ Why then do you endeavor to explain what you cannot 
understand ? What is God for us ? He is our father who is in 
heaven : we know nothing more of him. Look at the world, and 
you will not doubt his being: but do not endeavor to define it ;• 
for how will you express by human words him whom immensity 
cannot contain ? him who, in producing by his word millions of 
suns and of worlds, has hardly pronounced for us the first letter 
of his name ?” 

“ Do you come here to insult your pastor ?” replied the old 
priest, with bitterness. “ Since you are so wise and have learnt 
your lesson so well, you need not come here again: begone !” 

“ And why should I go out from the house of prayer ? are you 
here to drive away the little children whom your master called 
around him ? You are more proud and more harsh than the doc¬ 
tors of Jerusalem, for, when the child Jesus came to converse 
with them in the temple, they questioned him and replied to him, 
being astonished at the wisdom of his words; but it is not said 
that they wished to drive him away.” 

At these words, the priest became red with anger. He opened 
his mouth to speak, but he found no voice; in vain did he move 
his lips and his tongue while he rolled his eyes, his power of 
speech had been taken from him, and he could no longer articu¬ 
late any sound. 

Then Jesus ascended slowly towards the altar, took the priest’s 
chair, and seating himself in his presence, he began to teach. 

“ My brothers and my sisters,” said he to the children, “ do 


20 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


not try to know what God is; you could not comprehend him ; 
but endeavor to love him by thinking that he is good and that he 
loves you. Do not repeat at hazard that he is a spirit, for you 
cannot understand what a spirit is: but obey him as you obey 
your father and your mother. For it is he who wishes your 
mother to love you, and your father to work for you. And if 
your father should die, and if your mother were taken from you, 
think that you have always a father in heaven, and that God will 
always love you as your mother has loved you. 

“ You are all brothers, because God is the father of you all: 
and he loves you all, the poor as well as the rich, but more par¬ 
ticularly the poor, because they have more to suffer. Be there¬ 
fore like Go(kyour father : love each other all of you without 
distinction: but love most those who are the weakest, the small¬ 
est and the poorest, in order that you may be like your good 
father, who will see it and who will bless you. 

“ You are glad when people love you and when they do good 
to you. You do not like to have them take away what is yours, 
to have them insult you, strike you or prevent you without good 
reason from doing what you wish. Those who do not love you 
and who do you harm, you say that they are wicked; and those 
who love you and are kind to you, you say they are good. 

“Well! if you wish to be the children of God and to obey 
him, never be wicked, for God is not wicked. On the contrary 
be always good, and do as much good to the world as you can; 
for God is good and can do only good. 

“Pray to your Father that he may make you good; it is his 
will and his desire ; but it rnust also be your desire and your will; 
and the more you are accustomed to pray, the more you will be 
accustomed to desire what is good. Now, when you often desire 
to be good, by degrees you become better. 

“Pray; because prayer makes you think of God; and the 
thought of God is a good and salutary thought. Pray often; be¬ 
cause your youth distracts you, and you have frequent need to be 
recalled to wisdom.” 

When the Child Jesus had finished speaking, the old priest who 
had again # come to himself, fell at his feet, and suddenly recover¬ 
ing the power of speech, said to him : “ Lord, forgive me, for I 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


21 


could not at first believe that it was thou. The words which thou 
hast uttered are those of the Saviour of the world; and I was de¬ 
prived of voice, because thou alone hast the words of eternal 
truth.” 

Jesus said to him: “You know not how to understand, be¬ 
cause for too long a time you have ceased to love. Still it is not 
you who are culpable, but those who have brought you up thus. 
I know your uprightness and the purity of your morals, accord¬ 
ing to the world ; but know that, before my Father, it is charity 
which purifies. 

“ Therefore, old man, if you wish to enter into life, become 
again a little child and ask God to grant you a little simplicity 
and love. Fill no longer with empty words the flock which I 
have intrusted to you ; love children in order that they may un¬ 
derstand, for their understanding is in the heart.” 

And rising, Jesus went out from the temple. 

At the door he found a woman who was waiting for him and 
who said: “ Good Saviour, divine child of all desolate mothers, 
brother of all orphans, forgive me for having approached this 
temple at the sound of thy voice. How could I remain alone in 
my dwelling after having received thee there ; and whither can 
I go henceforth except in the traces of thy blessed feet ?” 

Jesus answered her: 

“ Mother, you know well that I love you, why then should 
you fear to be left alone ? Do not attach yourself so much to the 
form which passes. To-day I appear under the figure of a child, 
and to-morrow under another appearance ; but my spirit is always 
the same. 

“ My spirit is that of God living in humanity; and if all un¬ 
derstood that spirit, there would be no more death, for humanity 
does not die. 

“ The mother who has lost her child, and the child who has 
lost its mother, are they not made to come together and be united ? 
Can you say that you are alone in the world, and have you not 
always the means of loving ? 

“ Woman, I shall return this evening to your humble dwelling 
in order to drive away the remembrance of death and to bless it; 


22 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


but to-morrow, if you seek me again under the form which I 
have to-day, you will no longer find me. 

“ Then, if you wish to find me, search among the children who 
are deserted and who weep. And if you find one who, at night, 
knows not where to lay his head, and who will be thrown into 
prison, with the malefactors, because he is an orphan and for¬ 
saken, woman, take him by the hand, for I tell you in-truth that 
he is your son, and that all the good which you shall do him, you 
will have done to me.” 

On finishing these words, the child was carried elsewhere by 
the spirit of God, and the woman resumed the road to her house, 
meditating upon the words of Jesus in the bottom of her heart. 


THIRD LEGEND. 

THE MARTYRDOM OF THE INNOCENTS. 

After this, the Christ, by the divine power of the spirit, translated 
himself into several places at once; for his love led him to visit 
the sufferings of children, and among so many poignant sufferings 
which called to him at the same time, he would not have known 
which to choose in order to visit first. 

He saw, therefore, at the same time the thousand stations of this 
horrible industrial purgatory, in which are tortured the children 
of the people : There he saw meagre women, with cadaverous and 
fixed looks, working without respite and without repose to prolong 
for a few days the existence of their little children, who seemed, 
during that time, to sleep by their side. 

But the poor innocents did not sleep, they were in a lethargy! 
For, to prevent them from suffering and crying during the long 
days of torture, their mothers themselves had made them take a 
poison which kills slowly and which deadens pain. 

Other children, larger, but still more sad to look upon, were 
working like the wheels of the machines, which incessantly 



THE LAST INCARNATION. 


23 


threatened them with a horrible death, if they allowed their atten¬ 
tion to be distracted for a single moment. There prevailed the 
silence of death, only interrupted sometimes by words which 
seemed to come from hell. 

The Child-God did not speak to them, for they could not have 
understood him ; he did not manifest himself to their eyes, they 
would not have recognised him; only he went and came in the 
midst of those poor children, and touching their head and their 
chest he renewed their courage and prevented thought from being 
awakened in their mind. 

His eyes were filled with tears, and in the presence of so much 
suffering, he again clothed himself with the bleeding remem¬ 
brances of Calvary. The crown of thorns seemed to tear his brow 
afresh, the marks of the nails made his hands and his feet bloody, 
and his arms were sadly clasped around a cross. 

And he began again to pray as he had prayed in the garden of 
Olives, with a mortal sadness and inexpressible anguish. And 
he said : “ My Father, take pity on the suffering of the innocents! 
touch the hearts of the rich, and bring about the deliverance of 
the poor!” 

And he went thus, suffering, praying and weeping, from 
house to house, seeking the rich and the owners of the factories, 
looking upon them and passing befgre them, while he showed 
them his child’s face torn by the horrible crown, and his little 
hands pierced, and his cross, and his blood, and his tears. 

But those men, in consequence of loving and serving the idols of 
gold and of silver, had become like unto them; they had eyes and 
they saw not, they had ears and they did not wish to hear. Those 
among them who perceived the Christ or who deigned to remark 
him, asked him with an ironical smile if he brought them any 
money. 

Then the Christ gathered in his hand his tears and the blood 
which flowed from his heart, and every tear was changed into a 
piece of silver, and every drop of blood into a piece of gold. And 
he gave these to them in his indignation, saying to them : “ You 
have made me change my tears into silver, and my blood into 
gold; but when my father shall do justice, shudder and tremble ! 
the silver shall again become tears for you, and the gold shall 


24 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


again become blood, and you will be compelled to repay with* 
usury.” 

Then he left them and transported himself with the rapidity of 
thought into the houses where were taught the children of the 
rich. There it was no longer the prolonged agony of the body, 
it was the torture of the soul. The children, ranged in herds, 
were pent up within gloomy walls, and forced to apply their mind, 
suffering and repelled, to repugnant studies. Instead of the sweet 
teachings of their mother, they heard only the disagreeable and 
monotonous voice of a master hired to repeat to them always 
the same things. And the ennui which this caused them was 
punished in them as a fault. If they had the good sense not to 
understand anything of that nonsense called wise, if their memory 
relieved itself by forgetting, they were deprived of air and food, 
they were refused some moments of that recreation which nature 
made imperiously necessary for them, and they were compelled 
to expiate their disgust of a repugnant and useless task, by a 
task more useless and more repugnant still. It was thus their 
minds were stupified and their hearts obliterated in order to make 
of them machines for the production of money, and the deaf and 
dumb slaves of pitiless property. 

Jesus comprehended all these distressing things, and saw several 
of those children, already ipade old by impiety and disgust, seek 
in shameful habits an often fatal distraction. 

And he said to himself that the children of the rich were not 
more happy than those of the poor; this is why, thought he, those 
are happy whom intelligence and love have freed from the servi¬ 
tude of riches ! The true riches of man are the noble faculties 
of his soul, when God satisfies and animates them ! The real 
treasures of man are those which he carries everywhere with him, 
and which no one can take from him; the joy of a good conscience, 
the dignity of a free will, and the noble love of God and of his 
creatures! 

And Jesus passed through the midst of those children, who did 
not deign to speak to him, because he had the appearance of a 
child of the people. Others laughed at him as had done the 
children of the street, and a man who assumed the title of master 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


25 


did not impose silence on them, but approaching Jesus asked him 
who he was and how he had entered. 

Jesus answered him : “ I am the child who teaches masters, 
and I have come down from Heaven because you have closed 
your doors against me. I am the truth which judges your teach- 
ings, and which has found them to be lies. For, instead of bring¬ 
ing up the children of God for immortality, and of thinking to 
make them men, you bring them up slaves of the demon of riches 
for the corruption of all, and you make of them animals with rapa¬ 
cious instincts. 

“ You think you are the high priests of the sciences, and you 
are sacrificers to Moloch. You think you have the key of the 
doors of life, and you open only the gate of hell. You pretend 
to form men, and you know neither what a man is, nor what are 
his high destinies. 

“And how shall you teach these children whom you know 
not how to love, and whose wants you do not comprehend ? How 
can you make the young flower of their thought to bloom in the 
rays of the sun of God ? You do not see the divine sun, and 
you tread heavily upon the flowers of life. 

“ But you cannot even understand my words, and to awaken 
your heart is required the sweet and insinuating voice of my 
mother. Come, O Mary ! let your crown of gentle light dissi¬ 
pate by degrees the darkness of their hearts. Men do not know 
how to love children, it is for a woman to teach them. Come, 
O model of mothers, console all these poor orphans, instruct 
those who torment them ! ” 

After these words, Jesus departed ; and everywhere that he 
had been seen to pass, appeared, walking in his footsteps, the 
divine figure of Mary, beautiful with ineffable compassion and 
radiant with gentleness. She wiped the brow of the poor children 
of the people, condemned to the pitiless labor of the factories, and 
embraced them by turns, telling them to take courage and to 
hope. Then the poor little ones felt their hearts moved, thei? 
eyes again found some tears, and they felt themselves happy that 
they could weep. 

Then Mary passed into the prisons where the education of the 
age enchains its sad captives, and a single smile of her mouth 


26 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


taught much more to those poor children than all the lessons of 
their masters, for they remembered their mothers, and they ex¬ 
perienced the desire to be better on feeling reawaken within 
them the necessity of loving. 


FOURTH LEGEND. 

THE APPRENTICE CARPENTER. 

At that time, Jesus said : “ In order to render the condition of 
the children better, it is first necessary to teach their fathers and 
their mothers. 

“ When men shall be associated in their labor,.the heaviest 
burdens will not weigh upon the weakest, and when all shall 
work, there will be rest for all. Then the rich will no longer 
torture their own children in order to fit them for unjust domina¬ 
tion, and the poor will not be compelled to bend their youngest 
sons to the sorrows of servitude. For selfish passions will no 
longer stifle nature, and men will understand that labor is a duty 
and should never be a punishment. For there is no one to whom 
Providence has not given more fitness for one function than for 
another; and labor ought to be distributed according to the 
inclinations, and divided according to the strength of each. 

“ As to education, it ought to be common to all, like the light 
of the sun, for all desire it and feel the need of it. And when it 
shall no longer be falsified in its direction and barbarous in its 
methods, it will be a reward and a happiness for all children.” 

Jesus said this as he passed near a harbor where the carpen¬ 
ters were at work building a vessel. Some were squaring a 
large tree which was to be placed at the keel, and others were 
smoothing and adjusting planks of equal size, to form the sides 
of the hull. And all worked according to a plan and upon pre¬ 
cise measures, in order that the work of one should conform to 
that of another, and that the whole should be harmoniously com¬ 
posed of all the parts. 



THE LAST INCARNATION. 


27 


Jesus, under the figure of a youth, approached the foreman 
who had the superintendence of the work, and asked him if he 
could not give him occupation among his workmen. 

The foreman looked at him disdainfully, and said to him : 
“ What use could you be to us ? You are not strong enough V’ 

Jesus then noticed ten stout men who could not succeed in 
lifting an enormous piece of timber, because they distributed 
their forces badly and did not act together. All the strongest 
were on one side, and on the other all the weakest; so that the 
piece of timber, when raised on one side, threatened to fall on 
the other, and to crush a part of the workmen. 

Jesus approached and said to them : “Brothers, let me help 
you.” 

And they began to laugh, leaving their hard labor in order to 
wipe the sweat from their brows. 

But Jesus spoke to them with so much gentleness that they 
allowed themselves to be advised by him : he distributed the 
greatest strength where the weight was most heavy, assigned to 
each his post, indicating to him the motion he was to make ; 
he himself then placed his white and delicate hand under the 
enormous mass and gave the signal. And the mass of timber 
was raised without effort and as if by a miracle. 

Then turning towards the foreman, he said to him : “You 
see that in association no one is weak ; for he who can do the 
least with his hands can sometimes do the most by his advice. 
It is the cooperation of small efforts that determines the greatest 
movements ; and in order that a small force may become a power, 
it is only necessary to put it in its true place, so that it may act 
in harmony with all the other forces.” 

Then the workmen said to him : “ You are very young; and 
we see that you are already passed master in our trade.” 

Jesus said to them : “I am an apprentice carpenter; but I 
speak to you in the name of supreme wisdom, which is master 
in all the arts and in all the sciences. When Noah caused to be 
built the ark, which was to preserve the seeds of a new world, 
he consulted that supreme wisdom, and by it directed the coopera¬ 
tion of his workmen in the construction of that wonderful vessel. 

“ But the workmen who had labored in the building of the ark 


28 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


did not enter it, and perished in the deluge, because they obeyed 
the man, and did not penetrate the divine thought. Let it not be 
so with you, for I tell you in truth, that you are all called to the 
building of a new ark. Be, therefore, intelligent workmen ; and 
be careful to provide a place for yourselves and for your chil¬ 
dren in the great social vessel, in order that you may not perish 
when the great storm shall come.” 

The workmen said to him : “ Of what storm do you speak ?” 

Jesus answered them: “ When the wind blows, it must raise, 
or it must carry away, or it must overturn everything that 
opposes its passage. If it is thrown back upon the waters, it will 
upturn the mass of the waters; and if it descends in a whirl¬ 
wind upon the earth, it will uproot the trees. 

“ The spirit of God, the spirit of intelligence and of love, is like 
an impetuous wind, which blows from the east even to the west. 
It drives before it the clouds of error, shakes the rocks of 
pride which resist it, and uproots the old beliefs. And those 
who have thought they could usurp the kingdom of heaven, try to 
repel it and to drive it back upon the suffering multitudes, as upon 
the surface of the waters. This is why you must hasten to erect 
the edifice of salvation, in order that the rising of the waters may 
not carry you away.” 

Then the workmen understood his words; and some became 
pensive, others looked at him with astonishment, while others 
murmured within themselves, saying : “ This young boy is sent 
here to make us talk and they mistrusted him. 

But Jesus, taking an axe, began to work with them; and 
everything that he did was of an admirable precision. 

Then he said to them : “If any one requests you to labor for 
the salvation of your brothers, and does not at the same time put 
his hand to the work, distrust that man. True love for the 
people is proved less by words than by deeds. And how will 
they believe that a man feels for their sufferings, unless he 
suffers with them ? Listen to the advice of those who give you 
examples, and do not allow yourselves to be enervated and dis¬ 
couraged in the present by thoughts of the future : the future will 
be the son of the present, and to-morrow will gather what you 
sow to-day. 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


29 


“ But take care that envy, or foolish pride, or other bad pas¬ 
sions, do not make you despise the advice of those who love you. 
Recollect what happened to the people who allowed Jesus to be 
crucified. Know that the spirit of Jesus is always upon the 
earth, and that often, when you least expect him, he approaches 
you. Do not say, what right has such a one to teach us ? It is 
as if you said, what right has he to love us ? 

“ Receive truth from love for the truth itself, and be not jealous 
of him who devotes himself to tell it to you. Listen not to those 
who seek to depreciate his words, by accusing his person, for 
the weaknesses of man belong to man, but the word of truth be¬ 
longs to God. And you must know that it is so much the more 
divine, because it uses the voice of a more imperfect being, in 
order that you may not attach yourself to the man who speaks, 
but only to the truth which he tells you.” 

The men of the people, on hearing these words, were seized 
with respect; and, looking upon him who spoke to them, it seem¬ 
ed to them that they had already seen him before. Each 
of them found in him some resemblance to those whom he had 
loved, and whose affection had rendered his life less bitter. To 
some, it was the remembrance of a mother ; to others, it was the 
image of a son, or of a brother, who was no longer in this world; 
all felt their hearts moved, and courage and hope were re¬ 
awakened in their souls. 

Jesus worked with them until their dinner-hour, and, as they 
rested themselves to eat, he remarked that some had more, the 
others less; and he said to them : “ Do you know how the Christ 
formerly multiplied the loaves to satisfy the people in the 
desert?” They answered him: “No; and we do not believe 
in that miracle, because it appears to us impossible.” 

Jesus said to them : “ Put together in common all that you 
have brought for your dinner, in order that each may have the 
advantage of what belongs to all; and you will see that your 
provisions will be multiplied, for the bread of fraternal commu¬ 
nion will be the bond of association, and the seed of future pros¬ 
perity. And each of you will feel that he ought not to be a 
burden to the others, and you will be like the earth which re¬ 
ceives the grain that is given to it, to render it back a hundred 


30 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


fold.” Then, having blessed the bread, he broke it, and distri¬ 
buted it among them; and he did the same with the other provi¬ 
sions. And he said to them : “ Learn what humanity can do by 
the labor of its hands.” 

Then each offered from his share to his brethren, and no one 
wished to receive more than he could give in return; seeing 
which, Jesus said to them: “ The kingdom of God is not far 
from you.” And he left them. 

“ Will you come back ?” cried the workmen. “ Y es,” replied 
he ; “ if you do as I have told you, you will soon see me again 
in the midst of you.” 

And he left them in their astonishment, not daring to commu¬ 
nicate their thoughts to each other; and several said: “ If he 
were not so young, we should think the Christ had again come 
among us.” Because they did not reflect that the spirit of the 
Christ is immortal, and cannot grow old. 


FIFTH LEGEND. 

THE CHILDREN OF SOLOMON. 

After that, the Christ took the dress and the figure of a work¬ 
man, and, carrying his tools on his back and a long cane in his 
hand, he journeyed. 

Now, two workmen, of those who are called Companions of the 
Devoir,* were travelling in the same direction. They came near 
him, and made to him the signs of fraternity, to which Jesus 
replied only by the sign of the cross. The companions began to 
laugh and to mock at him ; they even prepared to maltreat him, 
and they asked him in a threatening tone, what he meant by 
what he had just done. 

Jesus answered them: “You made to me the sign of the 
children of Solomon, and I reply to you by the sign of him who 

* For an explanation of this Legend, see “ The Journeyman Joiner.” 



THE LAST INCARNATION. 


31 


was greater than Solomon. The cross is the square, multiplied 
and rendered universal. It is the symbol of equality before 
God, and of the fraternity of all. Solomon built only a temple 
of stone, and the Christ constructed universal society, that living 
temple which cements fraternity. 

“ Why do you ask me to what devoir (duty) I belong ? There 
is but one duty for all the children of the Father: it is to assist 
each other mutually, and to love each other, as the Father who is 
in heaven watches over them all and loves them.” 

The workmen replied : u We do not like the sign of the cross, 
and no longer believe in the virtue which was formerly attributed 
to it; for bad priests have made of it their sign, and have abused 
it, while they taught superstition and falsehood.” 

Jesus said to them: “ If brigands, while endeavoring to kill 
you, should pronounce the name of your mother, would that be a 
reason for no longer loving your mother ? The priests and the 
pharisees used the cross to put the Christ to death, and their suc¬ 
cessors have wished still to use it for the execution of the people 
whom the Christ came to save. But the Christ, in triumphing 
over the world by the cross, made the very instrument of his 
execution a sign of deliverance and salvation ; and that sign should 
cause bad priests and bad kings to tremble; for it is the sign of 
rallying for those whom the glorious death of the Christ, their 
brother, has rendered free. 

“ Brothers, do not renounce the cross; for it is by it that you 
will be strong, and that you will conquer.” 

“ Do you then despise the square of Solomon ?” asked the 
companions of the devoir. 

“ The square of Solomon is the symbol of a relative equality, 
and its branches embrace only one side of the humanitary 
edifice ; unite two squares together, so that one may open its 
branches to the side of the east and the other to the side of the 
west, and you will therewith form a cross.” 

• The two companions, who were men of sense, admired Jesus 
in their hearts, saying to him : “ We like to hear you. You are 
wiser than we, and you must teach us.” 

Jesus asked them : “ What is your religion ?” 

<< My parents were protestants,” said the first. 


32 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


“ Mine were catholics,” said the other; “ but I never go to 
church.” 

« Do you know what the words, Catholic Church, mean ?” asked 
the Christ. And as they were embarrassed for an answer, he 
added: “They mean universal association. This is what the 
Christ intended to introduce upon the earth, and the hierarchical 
society of the priests was only an imperfect model of the true 
universal Church. The error of the priests has been in wishing 
to render immutable and eternal that which was only transitory. 
They have built for themselves alone, a house according to the 
plans of the Christian architecture, and they have not reflected 
that the Church should be the house of the whole of humanity. 
This is why their house will be left to them, and they will die in 
it alone and deserted, while humanity will construct the great 
universal temple, of which Solomon’s was formerly the first 
figure. 

“ The priests, in the primitive Church, were only the wise men 
and the elders to whom the people confided the presidency of their 
assemblages. Are there no wise men among you ? and is there 
any necessity for you to seek the fathers of the people out of the 
ranks of the people ? 

“ Reflect that the ministry of mediation between God and man 
is the work of the most perfect devotedness. If there be among 
you a man who loves truth more than life, and his brothers more 
than himself, that man is worthy to preside over you ; and it is he 
who should explain to you the things that are of God. 

“ For he knows enough about religion, who knows how to love 
good and truth above all things, and his neighbor more than him¬ 
self. Religion was not given for the priests, but for the people; 
and the people are not the servants of the priests, but, on the con¬ 
trary, it is the priests who should be the servants of the people.” 

Then the companions replied to Jesus : “ Your words please 
us, however new and singular they may be; but we no longer 
wish to have priests among us: for their very name excites in us 
abhorrence and disgust.” 

Jesus said to them : “ Those whom you hate on account of 
their name call themselves priests and are so no longer, for they 
have been punished wherein they have sinned. They wished to 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


33 


conceal the spirit of wisdom contained in the symbols of the 
doctrine, and the spirit of wisdom has departed from them. They 
wished to keep the people in ignorance and superstition, and now 
they are themselves more ignorant and more superstitious than 
the lowest among the people. They have renounced loving and 
being loved in order to make themselves feared, and now they are 
no longer feared and they are not loved. 

“ Remember what the Christ said when speaking of the doctors 
of the ancient synagogue : ‘ The pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, do 
therefore what they teach you, but do not imitate their works; 
for they say and do not.’ ” 

One of the workmen then said : “ Why need we go and hear 
hypocrites and liars ? we much prefer to be taught by those who 
believe what they say, and who practise what they teach.” 

Then Jesus: “ That is a good thought, but know that the first 
Christians continued to respect the old temple, even while work¬ 
ing for the construction of the new Church. This is why I say 
to you: do not hate the pharisees and the doctors of the catholic 
church ; leave them to their impotence; they can no longer do 
you either good or harm, because they have no longer either in¬ 
telligence or love. 

“ This is why I say to you still further: build up the new 
society, the great universal association, the communion of all 
with all, and of all with each. Let those among you who have 
intelligence and devotedness be the fathers and the elders, to 
teach, to direct and to console ; and you will thus institute a new 
priesthood. 

“ It is not years which make a man old in wisdom, it is thoughts 
and works. And he who has thought most wisely and acted most 
justly, he has lived the longest. Be therefore young men when 
action is required, and old men when advice is needed.” 

After these words, Jesus said no more and continued walking 
with them. Now, the two companions also kept a profound 
silence and asked themselves : u Whence has this man so much 
knowledge and wisdom ? For he speaks to us with authority, and 
seems so certain of what he says that we are compelled to believe 
him.” 

Then two other journeymen belonging to another profession, 
2 * 


34 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


came by the same road and were about to pass the three travel¬ 
lers. Those who walked with Jesus said to him : “We shall be 
obliged to fight; they are but two and we are three, but you were 
not with us and you can stand aside. 5 ’ 

Jesus said to them : “ Why should you fight ? Are those men 
enemies or malefactors ? It seems to me that they are honest 
workmen like yourselves. What! because they are of one 
trade and you of another, must you rend each other like furious 
beasts! 

“ If the carpenter exterminates the stone cutter, how can he 
himself live ? Does not the carpenter’s work support and 
strengthen the stones of a building ? If he who makes garments 
triumphs over him who makes shoes, how shall he be shod ? and 
if it is the shoemaker who kills the tailor, how shall he be 
clothed ? 

“ You have all need, each of the other; and you hate each 
other only because you are members of separate societies ; unite 
your societies into a single one, instead of fighting, and cause 
universal union to take the place of separate associations.” 

As Jesus was still speaking, the two new comers drew near, 
but they were not willing to listen any longer, and raised their 
sticks to commence the attack. Then the two companions of the 
Christ stood on their defence, but Jesus, placing himself between 
them, stretched out his arms and said to them : “ You shall not 
fight, or you must strike me ; for you are brothers ; and if I can¬ 
not prevent you from doing harm, I prefer to be your victim 
rather than your accomplice.” 

“ Stand aside ! stand aside !” cried the four journeymen bran¬ 
dishing their canes; and as he did not stand aside, they struck, 
and the blood flowed down the face of the Christ. 

At this sight a sudden stupor paralysed the arms of the com¬ 
batants ; the head of the wounded man seemed to be surrounded 
by a glory, he cast upon them a sad glance which penetrated to 
their very heart, and said, as he took his blood in his hands and 
showed it to them : “ How many times then shall I be obliged to 
die for you ?” 

Then under the fresh blood which they had caused to flow, the 
journeymen recognised the ancient cicatrices, and the Christ, 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


35 


being transfigured before their eyes, appeared to them under the 
lamentable form of the Ecce Homo. 

They- fell upon their knees; and the Christ, raising his eyes to¬ 
wards Heaven, repeated once again his sublime prayer : “ Father, 
forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

Then he took their hands and joined them together, saying to 
them : “ Instead of being two on one side and two on the other, 
be four together : 3 r ou will be four times as strong! Meditate 
well upon this saying, and if you are intelligent, understand it.” 
Then, having blest them, he disappeared from their eyes. 

Then the four journeymen swore not to separate before they 
had laid the foundations of universal union. And they promised 
to help each other until death, consecrating their entire life to 
form a union between the children of Solomon, of Hiram and of 
the other ancient architects of the temple, in order to induce them 
to work all together for universal association, and for the ulti¬ 
mate formation of the great family of the children of the Christ. 


SIXTH LEGEND. 

THE DAUGHTERS OF MAGDALEN. 

Shortly after this, the Christ remembered the woman of Sa¬ 
maria and Magdalen the sinner, to whom many sins were for¬ 
given because she had loved much. And he, who had not 
disdained to descend even into hell, to deliver the souls of those 
whom he had ransomed, went in the evening through the streets 
of the great city, seeking the poor sinning women. 

And on seeing them wander about by the light of the lamps, 
with a smile on their lips and death in their heart, with flowers 
on their brow and their feet in the mud, he w T ept, thinking of 
Marv. And he looked at them with ineffable sadness, at the 
thought that each of those unfortunates had a soul and a heart. 

One of them having approached him, he looked at her sorrow¬ 
fully and said : “ Mv daughter, what do you desire of me ?” 



36 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


“ That thou wouldst forgive me,” replied she; for she had re¬ 
cognised him. 

Jesus said to her: “You know me because you have suffered 
much : poor child, what can I do for you ? I can forgive you, 
but how can I enable you to forgive yourself? Did not my 
father create you to live pure and to become a mother ? How 
then have you fallen into this horribly abject condition ? ” 

“ Because I could no longer live, and because I had not 
strength enough to die,” replied the poor woman weeping. 

“And in order to live you have condemned yourself to die 
every day,” said Jesus to her; “ what then did you find so de¬ 
sirable in life ?” 

“ Master,” returned she, “ when men pay me that they may 
outrage me, it is not I who am guilty of the evil which they do 
to me; but if I had laid violent hands on myself, I should have 
been obliged to answer before God for the crime of my death.” 

“ Woman, you reason justly,” said Jesus. “You were weak, 
and society did not support you: therefore you are a living 
accusation against it, and each of your humiliations shall be 
punished as a homicide. For each of those men who think they 
can possess you for a vile price, has had a mother; and he does 
not reflect that heaven had destined you also to be a mother. 
He has perhaps had a sister, and he does not reflect that you 
might be his sister. Sometimes he has even a betrothed; and 
he does not ask himself what he would suffer if any one should 
thus degrade his betrothed. For every woman is a betrothed of 
humanity; and to each of them had God destined a husband. 

“ Withdraw therefore from me, O my poor child ! for my pre¬ 
sence does you harm and covers you with shame: you would 
wish to love me and you dare not look upon me, because I am 
the pure man and you are the poor degraded woman. 

“ No, do not look at me, poor humiliated woman ; but look at 
my image nailed to the cross, and hope. For 1 do not break the 
bruised reed, and I do not tread under foot the still smoking flax. 

“ The world despises you, because it has made you impure, 
and it despised me because I was pure. You see then that its 
judgments are iniquitous, and that they ought not to drive you to 
despair. 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


37 


“ Poor creature ! who, because you were weak, suffer now what 
would terrify the strongest natures ! Do not fear my reproaches ; 
I do not wish to add them to the regrets of your heart. The 
world has broken you, that is why I will have pity on you. 
When I was expiring on the cross, 1 saw at my feet Magdalen 
the sinner; and I was happy to die for her. For I love those 
whom the world abandons, and I bless those whom it outrages. 

“ Depart, my daughter; and enclose your sorrow in your 
soul, like a hope. Weep inwardly, when the sad necessities of 
your life compel you to smile ; for you have no chastity hence¬ 
forth but in the tears of your heart. 

“ Never prostitute your soul, in order that your body may be 
purified by destruction ; and that the remembrance of your fall 
may perish with your perishable form in the forgetfulness of the 
grave. The soul is immortal, and its sorrowful aspirations after 
virtue will live with it; the body is mortal, and the faults which 
come from it and are attached to it will go with it into death. 

“ Poor angel fallen into hell, be not therefore tired with look¬ 
ing towards heaven, and do not despair of your salvation, for 
those who have destroyed you are more criminal than you: and 
you would have a right to cry out for vengeance against them.” 

“ I forgive them,” replied the woman ; “ for if they were better 
they would be happier; and how could they have been good to 
me, when they do not yet know how to be good to themselves ?” 

“ Go in peace, my daughter, and hope for your deliverance,” 
then said the Christ. “ You have not been virtuous, and perhaps 
that is the world’s fault more than your own; but you are good, 
and that belongs to your heart and the world cannot take it from 
you. God will forgive you as you forgive those who have in¬ 
jured you. Be courageous then and try to free yourself from 
vice. Let no labor repel you ; for you have suffered something 
still more severe : let no effort be too great for you ; for you have 
needed many efforts to resign yourself to your abject condition. 

“ Courage ! my daughter, rise up and hope ! let your heart be 
pure in the first place: form again a virginity in your soul and 
God will not desert you. 

“ The world will never forgive you, because, being more cri- 
minal than you, it has neither the right nor the generosity of 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


forgiveness. But God will love you as a father loves his pro¬ 
digal son, and your very faults, which repentance will make 
eternal sources of sorrow for you, will become for you expiatory 
sufferings and claims to the crown of martyrdom.” 

Having said these words, the Christ departed, for the poor 
woman sobbed and could no longer listen to him. 

Jesus afterwards passed before other women who did not re¬ 
cognise him, and to whom he did not speak, because they were 
brutified by vice and contented in their abjectness, from love of 
disorder and hatred of good. He looked upon them as diseased 
persons fallen into delirium and prayed silently for them. 

He saw others whose life was a continued drunkenness, and 
who intoxicated themselves in order to forget; and he compared 
them to those unfortunates who have lost their reason; but he 
pitied them the more because their madness was voluntary. 

But he cursed none of those women, because they were all 
unhappy. He pitied them, on the contrary, and loved them, 
because no one loves them. 

But there were men who passed in the street and who insulted 
those unfortunates. Jesus approached them and said to them : 
“ You doubtless are modest, since you insult these women who 
have lost their modesty. You doubtless know the sanctity of 
love, since you insult these women who sell their deplorable 
complaisance. You doubtless respect the sex of your mother 
and of her who is or who will be the mother of your children, 
since you thus despise these poor women, who have lost all their 
maternal dignity.” 

“ What is that to you ? ” replied those men rudely. “ We do 
what pleases us; go your ways. Are you the defender of these 
creatures ?” 

Jesus said to them : “ If these creatures are despicable, what 
name shall be given to you, to you who degrade them ? For it 
is of your brutality that they are made the servants; and if there 
were no men like you, there would be no Women like them. 

“ Now, you know that, according to the law of nature, the 
husband is the head of the conjugal society, and that he answers 
before men even for the disorders of his wife. 

“ Now, I tell you that, before God, the legitimate wife of the 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


39 


debauchee is the prostitute, and that he ought to be branded be¬ 
fore men with all the disorders of her whom he habitually makes 
his companion. 

“ Now, as each man who unites Himself intimately with a 
woman, makes but one with her, when you outrage these poor 
creatures, your insults fall back upon yourselves and you alone 
deserve them.” 

On hearing this discourse, those men were filled with confusion 
and bit their tongue with anger, but no one of them dared to in¬ 
sult or threaten Jesus, for he spoke boldly to them, and those who 
can insult women are naturally cowards. 

They murmured among themselves and stammered insults 
and rude railleries in a low voice. But Jesus turned his back 
upon them and departed. And they did not suspect who it was 
that had just spoken to them. 


SEVENTH LEGEND. 

THE CONSPIRATORS. 

At that time Jesus wished to converse with those who said they 
were devoted to the redemption of the people. But before mani¬ 
festing himself to them, he wished to know their most secret 
thoughts; and making himself present to them by the virtue of his 
spirit, he listened to the words of their hearts. 

He especially interrogated those who should be the ministers 
of the word, the men whose writings are multiplied every day 
like the leaves of the trees, and he sought for a belief and a 
thought at the bottom of the heart of those men. He saw them 
put on and put off their maxims like a livery, defend and attack 
the same thing by turns with the same indifference, for to the 
greater number among them nothing was true and nothing was 
false. 

He saw the fiercest defenders of the popular cause, full of con¬ 
tempt f6r the people, and burning with a low envy which made 



40 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


them the enemies of the great, because they themselves thirsted 
for riches and greatness. He saw them write upon their banner 
names which they themselves despised. For these men knew 
themselves too well to have any confidence in each other, and 
they no longer believed even in themselves, for they doubted every¬ 
thing, having lost faith and not having found science: as some 
must indeed reign and others obey, they protested against obedi¬ 
ence in the hope of reigning, and each helped the other, in order 
to succeed by his means ; but they detested each other, and were 
all jealous of each other in the depths of their heart. 

Jesus saw them, understood them, and did not go near to speak 
to them or to manifest himself to them ; for those unfortunates 
could neither see nor hear him. 

Then having turned away his eyes, he sought the men of the 
people who were assembled in secret like the Christians in the 
times of the Catacombs; there at least - he saw noble hearts and 
generous aspirations, but nowhere was there any agreement about 
the choice or the employment of means, because the flock of the 
future had not yet found its shepherds. The greatest confusion 
prevailed in ideas; and the wills, instead of being united, were 
divided more and more, and opposed mutual obstacles; each one 
wished to bring forward his system, and the systems destroyed 
each other; the time of faith and of common beliefs seemed to be 
for ever passed, and no fixed and durable light as yet replaced 
the extinguished faith ; thus the natural heat of souls destroyed 
them without producing brightness, and was exhausted without 
being communicated to other souls which were cold and which 
languished in darkness. 

Jesus assumed the appearance of a man of the people, and 
entered at evening into a low hall where were assembled some 
writers and working men, who were talking of reform without 
coming to any understanding, because the emissaries of the poli¬ 
tical parties agitated them in a contrary direction. 

Jesus then rose in the midst and said to them : “ For what 
purpose have you come here ? Have you come to dispute about 
words which you do not understand, and to listen to men who 
seek to glorify themselves ? Have you come to build up or to 
destroy ? To unite or to divide ? To deliberate or to dispute ? 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


41 


“ Mistrust those men who, under pretext of zeal for your inte¬ 
rests, bring to you only bitter recriminations; those who specu¬ 
late upon principles in favor of such or such a name; those who 
address themselves only to hateful and jealous passions. Banish 
from among you those who speak incessantly of themselves and 
who underhandedly calumniate your friends and your defenders.” 

At these words, there was a great tumult in the assembly; a 
part of those who were there, shouted in order to drown the voice 
of the Christ, and calling him traitor and false brother, they 
wished to drive him out. 

Then Jesus said : “ Bad passions betray themselves. Let the 
men of good faith, the friends of good order be silent and remain 
calm; they will be recognised by this sign, and the meeting will 
be purified.” 

More than half the assembly then seated themselves and kept 
silence ; while the agitators, furious at seeing themselves thus 
recognised, burst out into threats and insults. Jesus remained 
seated in the midst of the honest workmen, who kept calm 
and silent like him, and they preserved a deep.silence. Seeing 
which, those men who were violent and of bad faith, left the 
assembly. 

Then Jesus said to those who remained : “ Brothers, when the 
first Christians met in secret assemblages, it was not to dispute, 
but to commune together in the spirit of fraternity and of justice. 
You suffer greatly, I know: society is harsh and unjust towards 
you, I know that also ; but you form a part of society. Be good 
towards each other, and society will be less harsh; be yourselves 
just in the first place, and injustice will be diminished. Know 
that disorder always produces a greater disorder, and that evil 
never remedies evil. 

“ Do you know why the wicked rich oppress you ? It is be¬ 
cause they do not recognise you as their brothers, having had the 
misfortune to forget God and the teachings of the Christ. They 
are unjust, because they have no other moral law than their ava¬ 
rice and their pride: beware therefore of pride and avarice ; for 
these vices produce in their conflicts only the alternations of 
tyranny and slavery. In order to be free, you must first be libe¬ 
rated from all the ba,d passions which enslave the heart and de- 


42 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


prave the understanding. Do not conspire in darkness against 
men ; conspire in broad daylight against vice. 

“ Exercise a fraternal watchfulness over each other; repri¬ 
mand in your meetings the intemperate, the brutal, and the idle ; 
give public eulogiums to labor, to devotedness, and to correct mor¬ 
als. The people will be strong when they are good and just. 
Let them cease to be minors, and their guardian will be compelled 
to render his accounts to them. Lions are not harnessed to the 
cart, and eagles are not fed in the poultry yards with domestic 
fowls. 

“ But so long as you are neither wise enough nor strong 
enough to reign yourselves, obey your kings and your chiefs, 
and pray to God that he will preserve them for you, because the 
people always suffer in revolutions and never gain by a change 
of masters.” 

The workmen, hearing this, murmured among themselves and 
said : “ Is not this man an emissary of the government ?” And 
they began to retire, one after the other. 

Jesus, continuing his discourse, said to them : “ How can you 
be free, if you know not how to discern the true from the false, 
and the good from the evil ? How can you get out of slavery, if 
you calumniate those who love you, and if you refuse to hear 
those who tell you the truth ? 

“ Because the government is in fact stronger than you, and 
because I advise you not to crush yourselves by rushing against 
it, you say that I am an emissary of your enemies! And when 
I trace out for you the path by which you can attain the royalty 
of free men, you accuse me of being a servant of the govern¬ 
ment ! You see well that you are not yet in a condition to reign, 
for you wish to be flattered and not to be taught: you have the 
usual weakness of tyrants.” 

When the Christ had made an end of speaking, he looked 
around him, and saw that all had departed, excepting three 
young men, who listened to him with respect. 

Jesus said to them: “You are then the only ones who have 
understood me ? Well! go now and announce to your brethren 
what you have heard, and do not despair of the salvation of 
humanity. 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


43 


“First free the world which is in yourselves; be men, and 
you will be free ! For all slavery is voluntary. No one can 
degrade those who are not willing to be degraded. God himself, 
with all his power, could not compel the will of a little child.” 

“We wish to be free!” then said the three young men with 
energy. 

“Well! persevere in that will, and you shall be more than 
kings,” replied Jesus. 

And they separated. 


EIGHTH LEGEND. 

THE NEW ADULTEROUS WOMAN. 

At that time Jesus clothed himself with all the majesty of the 
perfect man-; and as he had formerly awaited the Samaritan 
woman at the edge of Jacob’s well, so he went and seated him¬ 
self in a retired spot of a public garden. 

Now, a woman who had seen him pass had followed him at a 
distance, and she approached him in order to see if he would not 
speak to her; but Jesus did not even look at her. 

Now, that woman was deeply agitated in her heart, and could 
not turn away her eyes from that radiant figure. She recog¬ 
nised the Christ because she had seen him in all her dreams, 
and she ardently desired that he would look at her; but she did 
not dare to speak to him the first, because she feared his con¬ 
tempt. 

Nevertheless the Lord had pity on the anguish of the woman, 
and praying inwardly to his Father, he said: “O my God! 
deliver women from adultery, in order that the generations may 
no longer be poisoned at their source ! O my God ! have pity on 
the tears of my mother, who prays for the liberation of mothers, 
and restore chastity to this corrupted world!” 

Then, addressing the woman, with a gentle and grave counte¬ 
nance, he asked her if she wished to speak to him. 



44 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


The woman replied blushing that she had nothing to say to 
him; but she remained near him, confused, trembling, and yet 
charmed at having heard his voice. 

“Well, I, my daughter, have something to say to you,” said 
the Saviour, “sit down by my side.” 

“ I cannot,” said the woman, “ for I fear that my husband may 
see me.” 

“ Then you are doing something wrong ?” asked Jesus. 

“ Perhaps so,” replied the woman, “ and yet it seems to me 
that I have confidence in you, and the feeling which retains me 
by your side in spite of myself is very pure. I do not think I 
have ever seen you before, and already it seems to me that I 
have known you for a long while, and that you have always 
been good to me. I feel no shame at letting you see the condi¬ 
tion of my heart. I only fear your contempt, for I am the wife 
of another.” 

“ And that other, have you loved him ?” asked Jesus. 

“ Never,” replied the woman, casting down her eyes. 

“ And how could you promise fidelity to him whom you did 
not love ? For fidelity is only the voluntary guarantee of a 
mutual love. You therefore deceived a man who loved you, by 
pretending to give to him that which was not yours, and which 
could never be his ?” 

“He himself did not love me,” again murmured the woman. 
“ He married me for the sake of the money which my parents 
gave him with me, in exchange for his name and his credit.” 

“ And thus you became adulterous ?” said the Christ looking 
at her. 

“Oh! no, never!” returned she earnestly. “To-day is the 
first time that an invincible attraction has made me speak with 
freedom to another man ; but now, were it not for the confidence 
and the respect with which your physiognomy inspires me, I should 
not have approached you. I knew well that you would despise 
me,” added she, bowing her head, and the tears flowed from her 
eyes. 

“ Woman,” said the Christ to her, “ you are not culpable for 
having loved, but indeed for having given yourself to him whom 
you did not love. Know that God had betrothed you from your 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


45 


birth by the attractions which he placed in the depths of your 
heart. He whom you were to love, he whom you dreamt of, he 
whose image I recall to you, he alone was your true husband, 
and during his absence you were sold like a slave, and you con¬ 
tracted an adulterous alliance with another. 

“ Do you no longer remember the words of the Christ 1 The 
man shall forget his father and his mother and shall cleave unto 
his wife. This means that conjugal affection shall be more tender 
than filial love, and shall prevail over all the affections. For God 
from the beginning has predestined man and woman to be 
united. What God has joined together let man never put 
asunder ! 

“ But tell me, woman : is it by bargains of traffic and of avarice 
that God unites wills, and do you believe that the demon of riches 
can accomplish the work of holy and legitimate love ? Does not 
man separate what God wishes to unite, when he sells his daughters 
and when he buys a wife ? 

“ I do not reproach you, my daughter, for you were not free, 
and according to the laws which they have made, you were 
compelled to obey. Resistance would have been death to you ; 
and all souls have not the courage of martyrdom. 

“ Do not curse your parents, but pray God to forgive them, for 
they prostituted you to their interest and their pride. 

“ Know only that on the day when what men call your mar¬ 
riage was accomplished, the angels of heaven veiled themselves 
with their wings and wept over you, for you had become an 
adulterous woman. You were unfaithful to the sweet dream of 
your heart, you abjured the alliance hidden in your soul, you 
outraged divine maternity.” 

“ Spare me !” said the woman in a supplicating voice, and 
clasping her hands. 

“ Woman,” returned Jesus, “ I have already told you: it is 
not I who accuse you, it is you who might accuse the world. 

“ For all those who consent to evil commit evil, and all those 
who are the slaves of riches, all those who esteem gold more than 
liberty and more than love, all those who are indignant at this 
venality of the world, and who do not protest loudly against the 
universal corruption; those who do not think of it and who are 


4G 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


satisfied with laughing at it; all these are the accomplices of 
him who bought you and of those who sold you. 

“ This is why, if no one formerly had the right to cast the 
first stone at the unfaithful woman, because all had sinned, at 
this day the woman whom they have made adulterous* can rise 
up before the throne of God and accuse them in her turn with 
sobs and tears. And I tell you in truth that each of her tears 
will be equal in value to a drop of the blood of the Redemption, 
and that her sobs will impose silence before God on the clamors 
of hell!” 

Then he added in a gentler voice : “ Woman, the human word 
is sacred as the divine word, and the slave who has sold himself 
has no longer the right to flee; otherwise he would be perjured 
and a robber. Let the faithfulness of your word expiate the un¬ 
faithfulness of your heart. 

“ Do not reproach yourself for loving me : you may do so, for 
soon you will see me no longer, and you will seek me in your 
dreams. 

“ I am the husband of isolated souls ; I am the man of the 
future ! 

“ It is I who am the betrothed of virgins, and the consoler of 
widows! 

“ I am the husband promised by the celestial poetry of Solo¬ 
mon to the woman purified by trial and freed by sorrow ! 

“ Let us love each other, poor slave ! and be resigned while 
awaiting your freedom; but if you have daughters, never sell 
them, and do not sacrifice them to alliances which heaven looks 
upon with horror. 

“Labor for the destruction of sin, in order that God may 
forgive your fault; and if you wish again to see my image, in 
order to encourage you to suffer—look upon the cross.” 

At this last word, the woman was seized with affright, and, 
raising her eyes, she saw no one. 

She fell upon her knees, by the side of the bench where she 
had seen the Saviour seated, and clasping her hands, she wept 
bitterly. 

Several men then approached without her perceiving them : it 
was her husband, who was looking for her, accompanied by 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


47 


several witnesses, and who said to them, pointing at her : “You 
see that she has become crazy ; you will testify for me.” 

Then they seized her, and she allowed herself to be led away 
without understanding what they wished ; but when she saw that 
her husband was about to put her in confinement, in order to get 
rid of her, she thought that she would, at least, be delivered from 
adultery and prostitution: she preferred to be the victim of that 
man, rather than to continue his accomplice, and when she was 
questioned, she replied that she had seen the Christ, and related 
all that the Saviour had said to her. Then the physicians and the 
judges decided that she had lost her reason, and she was shut up 
in a hospital for the insane. There she consoled herself by 
thinking that she should not be a mother, and that she should 
bring no daughters into the world: she was buried alive in that 
terrible tomb, and of all that had belonged to her, she asked only 
for her mother’s crucifix. 


NINTH LEGEND. 

THE HOUSE OF THE INSANE. 

At that time, Jesus, wishing to compel the insanity of the age 
to condemn itself by declaring its aversion to wisdom, entered 
into a house where a large number of persons were assembled, 
and, raising his voice, he spoke thus to them : 

“ For what purpose have you come together in this house, 
when your minds are divided, and when your hearts separate 
more and more from each other? Why do you salute each 
other with a gracious countenance, when, at the bottom of your 
heart, you desire each other’s death ?” 

And, as they murmured at these words, Jesus added : “ Who 
is there among you that would not take the fortune and the digni¬ 
ties of another, if he could do so with impunity ? Now, to wish 
to strip one’s brother of that which makes his life, is not this to 
desire his death ? 



48 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


“ What do you seek with so much trouble ? What do you 
conceal with so much care ? What do you desire as the reward 
of so many efforts ? You wear out your life, you brutalize your 
soul, you destroy your heart, to attain an object which you your¬ 
selves do not understand. You seek happiness at the expense of 
happiness ; you sacrifice your life to live; you devour your 
entrails to appease your hunger. 

“ Your whole life is a lie : you voluntarily imprison yourselves 
in constraint and ennui; you sell your eternity to buy death, 
and you resemble the sick man in delirium, who dreams of 
journeys or of pleasures during the exhaustion of his agony. 

“ What good does it do you to gain the universe while you lose 
your soul ? Is a corpse happy, then, upon a throne ? and when 
you have no longer either belief or love, of what use to you is 
the homage of men whom you despise, and the attentions of those 
poor women whom you do not love and who do not love you ? 

“ Is not vainglory a derision to him who has raised himself by 
crawling ? and can he believe himself superior to those who de¬ 
base themselves to-day as he debased himself yesterday ? What 
can be done with riches by the man who has killed his heart, 
and reduced himself to animal life ? Are not the necessities of 
animals limited, and does not every excess carry with it its lassi¬ 
tude and its punishment ? 

“ Go, then, servants of this world, sacrifice yourselves for this 
ungrateful master; abjure everything that makes the joy of the 
soul; renounce everything that makes the life of the heart; then, 
when you shall be such as you must be to reign over it, you will 
yourselves reject with disgust what it will have left you of corpse¬ 
like existence, and extinction will be your last hope.” 

As Jesus spoke thus, the master of the house sent for his 
servants to drive him out; “ for,” said he, “ a crazy man has 
entered our saloon, and his craziness being very sad, he must 
be led away, and placed in the hands of the police, in order that 
he may be confined in a house of the insane.” 

But Jesus, understanding their thought, said to them: “ You 
send me to the house of the insane, and I leave you in your own 
house. 

“ Henceforth you will not imprison me any more than you can 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


49 


imprison thought. I am no longer a man ; I am the type and 
the ideal of the human form. Violence can never seize upon me 
to make me die. You will not confine me, you whom the insanity 
of riches binds with chains of gold ; but if you remember my 
words and if you recover your senses, my word will make you 
free.” 

As he said this, all who were there shrugged their shoulders 
and laughed; and the servants, having approached to seize him, 
dared not lay hands on him. But Jesus went out and departed 
from that assembly. 

He walked through the city,- and saw men who worked from 
morning to night in order to live, and who had never asked them¬ 
selves of what use life could be. 

Others, who lived by fraud and shameful trafficking, extinguish¬ 
ing the last spark of their soul every day in infamy, as if they 
had hired themselves to corruption and death. 

He saw others, the whole of whose existence was a lie ; and 
when he sought what truth they could conceal with so much care 
and so much difficulty, he found none. 

Some loved without being loved, and, on that very account, 
persisted in loving more; others prided themselves in loving 
nothing, and they stupefied themselves in order that they might 
not see themselves alone, for they were afraid of themselves. 

There were some who drank and sang in order to swallow their 
tears and to conceal their sobs. 

Others ran about at night, disguised in strange habiliments; 
they met in vast halls illuminated by brilliant lights: there they 
insulted each other with a laugh, assembled by chance, danced, 
stamped, shouted, rushed together pell-mell. There were pre¬ 
pared prostitution and debauchery ; there youth rapidly grew old ; 
there intellect was extinguished and lost for ever. This was 
called diversion. Mothers permitted their sons to go there, and 
men often themselves conducted thither women whom they pre¬ 
tended to love. 

In all that great city, in fine, the least wicked and the most 
wise were those who lived like animals. The others were de¬ 
mons. 

Jesus then said to himself: “ All these men are devoid of 
3 


50 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


sense, and they confine in a pretended house of the insane those 
who do not think like them. I will therefore go into the house 
of the insane and will there seek for wisdom/’ 

And as he is the physician of souls, he took the appearance of a 
physician, and went to the hospital for the insane. 

The first whom he met there said to him: “lama king.” 
And Jesus said: “ Many other men pretend the same thing. 
The only difference between them and this one is, that their pecu¬ 
liar fantasy is contagious, and that they find a people to believe 
them.” 

Another then approached and said : “ I am God !” “ All the 

wise men of the age say the same thing,” replied Jesus. “ Why 
then do they consider you insane ?” 

“ It is because I am not willing to adore them,” replied the 
crazy man; “ being unable and unwilling to adore any other than 
myself.” 

“ They are all like you,” said Jesus to him ; “ only they do 
not say it, and pretend to adore others in order to be adored in 
their turn.” 

“ They feel then very plainly that they are not God, and they 
pretend to be God in spite of their own conscience,” replied the 
crazy man triumphantly. “ They have therefore confined me 
from envy and because I alone, among them all, was wise!” 

“ No, but they were more insane than you,” said Jesus, “ and 
they are so still.” 

There came another and said: “ I am not God, but I wish to 
do what God has not yet done: I wish to secure the happiness of 
men.” 

Jesus looked at him with a melancholy air and said: “ Do you 
know what it costs and how much time is required to succeed ?” 

“ Trouble and time are nothing,” replied the insane man. 
“ Truth is a seed which germinates slowly, but which infallibly 
bears its fruit. I have discovered the two great laws of nature : 
the unity of substance and the harmony of the movement which 
modifies it. That movement is the music of God which vibrates 
by octaves ; the highest notes correspond with the lowest by in¬ 
numerable scales of which analogy is the key. Let man under¬ 
stand the work of God, and imitate it in his social arrangements. 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


51 


This is the realization of the Gospel and the salvation of the 
world.” 

Jesus replied to him : “ Temples are still being built. I would 
that the words you have just uttered could be deeply engraved 
on a tablet of brass, and that tablet be buried under the founda¬ 
tion of the last church that shall be built. When it shall be 
brought to light some day, men will perhaps understand what you 
have just said ; but if you continue to talk thus, you will die 
here, and no one in the world will be interested in you during 
your life or will remember you after your death.” 

“ Excepting God,” said the insane man. 

" And myself,” added the Christ, and he clasped the hand 
of the poor insane man. 

Then he approached another who had been chained, because 
he was considered dangerous. This one wept with indignation 
and repeated : “ They have disposed of me and I did not belong 
to them : I have labored and they have consumed the fruits of 
my labor ; they have eaten my flesh and my blood. The earth 
belongs to God, who loans it to all his children, and they say: 
‘The earth belongs to usl’ And because those brigands are the 
strongest, they make the children of God die of hunger ! The 
robbers possess the world; and of their robbery they have made 
the basis of their laws and their morality. Oh ! if the poor should 
one day be tired of suffering and should unite for vengeance !” 

“ Hold your tongue,” then cried the hoarse voice of a keeper 
to the furious man, “ hold your tongue, or you shall be gagged 
again.” 

“ Will that prove that you and your masters are not robbers 
and assassins ?” cried the insane man with still increasing ex¬ 
citement. 

“ It will prove that you must hold your tongue,” said the keeper; 
and, with the assistance of two or three of his fellows, he ap¬ 
proached the crazy man and gagged him with the greater facility 
because his feet and his hands were fastened to rings of iron. 

Jesus passed near him and pacified him by a look, but he did 
not speak to him, for there is always a kind of insult in the words 
which are addressed to one who cannot answer; but he said to 
the keeper : “ It is by embittering this man with cruel treatment 


52 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


that you make him furious. Be more humane towards him, and 
his poor heart will be pacified ; for I tell you in truth that his 
madness is only the love of justice carried to extreme, and the 
more he is tormented, the more dangerous and incurable will his 
malady become. 

“ Only pray to God that it may not be contagious, and may not 
spread among the people, for then there would be a horrible con¬ 
vulsion, like that of the last judgment, and heaven and earth 
would be shaken by it.” 

Having said these things, Jesus stretched out his hand over 
those poor suffering heads, and he spoke in secret to all those 
broken hearts. 

Then they forgot for a moment their miseries and their furies; 
they thought they heard voices which came from heaven. Some 
wept, and their tears did them good ; others, more happy, fell 
asleep and dreamt that they were dead. 


TENTH LEGEND. 

THE HEIRS OF PILATE. 

There was at that time a merchant who passed for a model of 
integrity and justice ; the strictest probity had always governed 
him in his transactions; he never received more than was due 
to him, and was contented, for his profit, with what was conform¬ 
able to the usual laws of trade, and authorized by custom. 

All his fellow merchants laughed at him and predicted his 
speedy ruin. Nevertheless, contrary to their expectation, not 
only was he not ruined, but he prospered and grew rich. 

He was quite intelligent in matters of business, but there his 
genius stopped; he did not wish to do evil, but neither did he 
know how to do good. He had wished to make for himself a good 
reputation, in order that he might afterwards esteem himself ac¬ 
cording to the reputation he should have made, for he needed the 



THE LAST INCARNATION. 


53 


opinion of others in order to regulate his own, like persons who 
have a watch, and cannot tell the hour by the sun. 

Now, this man, who knew not how to judge himself, was called 
upon to judge others, because he had money. He therefore went 
to the tribunal, and listened to the arguments in the cause as well 
as he could. The case was as follows : 

A woman who was intelligent and of an elevated genius, yield¬ 
ing to the corruption of the age and prostituting herself to the 
attraction of riches, had married before men one whom, before 
God, she could never love. 

At the moment of undergoing the profanation of her modesty, 
she had a horror of her fault and refused what was required of 
her. 

Having arrived at the house of the man whom she ought never 
to have called her husband, she confessed to him her remorse and 
her disgust, asked of him in mercy to let her escape, and offered 
to him, in exchange for her liberty, all that she possessed in the 
world. She was not allowed to depart, she was kept as a captive, 
and he whom she could not look upon without disgust at last com¬ 
pelled her to yield to what he thought he could call his right. The 
wife resigned herself, but, after some time, the husband was at¬ 
tacked by strange pains and died. 

It was supposed that the woman must have hated that man 
enough to attempt his life ; it was believed that she might have 
become criminal from despair, so much was she known to have 
suffered. Besides, the superiority of her intellect had made 
enemies of those whom envy made her oppressors, and she was 
accused of the most cowardly of crimes. 

That was alleged against her which should have justified her; 
the indications which accused her were so grossly evident that 
they betrayed a foreign hand. Besides, had the victim been 
really poisoned ? Poison was found everywhere, except in the 
body; science doubted and contradicted itself, but the morality 
of the world has also its fanaticism : it was pretended that if this 
woman should be acquitted, all family and social bonds would 
be broken. It was then that the honest merchant of whom we 
have spoken was called, with several other inhabitants of the 
same city, to decide upon the fate of the accused. 


54 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


Not daring to condemn her absolutely, when so many reasons 
were presented in her favor, nor to acquit her, because they 
believed society threatened with so serious a danger, those men 
dared to decide that the unfortunate was culpable, but that with 
her crime were connected circumstances which diminished its 
horror. 

They did not think that if the crime had been committed, the 
most cowardly hypocrisy had prepared it, the blackest perfidy 
had consummated it, the most audacious perversity had denied it, 
by making a jest of everything that is sacred in heaven and upon 
earth ; and, by a contradictory decision, human justice seemed, 
in these unheard of circumstances, to condemn innocence and to 
acquit guilt. 

The virtuous merchant returned home with a quiet heart, after 
having cooperated in this judgment; still, he dared not embrace 
his wife, and his children seemed to him sad when they came to 
meet him. 

However, he took his meal as usual, but involuntarily shud¬ 
dered several times when his wife offered him drink. At night, 
he retired early ; and, when he was alone in his chamber, he 
was suddenly seized with fear, for it seemed to him that he heard 
some one walking behind him, and he knew that no one could 
have entered the chamber. 

Then he turned round trembling, and saw near him the Christ, 
who looked upon him with a sad and severe countenance. The 
Christ appeared to him such as he was formerly seen before 
Pilate, clothed in the white robe which Herod had caused to be 
thrown over him, his face furrowed with blood and with tears, 
his arms bound and his hands tied in the knots of a disgraceful 
rope. 

“ I come,” said he to the merchant, “ to be judged again by 
you, for half the world have protested against my condemnation, 
while the other half still say that I was a criminal. 

“ You who dare to affirm when others doubt, I come to ask of 
you if you approve the sentence of Pilate ? of that judge who 
thought he could wash his hands with water, after having bathed 
them perchance in innocent blood ? 

“ Unfortunate ! you see the knife suspended over a head, and, 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


55 


according to your feeble intellect, when reason dares not deter¬ 
mine, you decide that the knife must fall, and you pronounce the 
fatal word, without ever asking yourself if society be not solidary 
in the crimes of its unhappy children, and if, in passing that sen¬ 
tence of death, you did not condemn yourself. 

“ But these thoughts disturb you in spite of yourself, and arise 
in your bosom unconsciously to you ; doubt causes the sentence 
to expire on your lips : you condemn and you excuse at the same 
time; you say yes and no in the same breath, and the judgments 
you venture to deliver resemble the blind blows of a confused 
assassin, who turns away his head and strikes at random.” 

“ Master,” said the juryman trembling, “ why do you address 
me alone, when so many others do like me and think they act 
conscientiously ?” 

“ Because you have the reputation of a just man, above all the 
others,” said Jesus to him, “ and I knock at that door which I 
think will be opened.” 

“ But what must I do, Lord V’ asked the merchant, hiding his 
face in his hands. 

“ Never decide unfavorably when you can doubt,” said the 
Christ, “ and impose upon yourself the duty of saving a man 
every time the sentence shall have condemned one. For I tell 
you in truth, that my Father will require of you an account 
of all the victims of society, if, in the place of the heads which 
shall fall, you do not present to him joyous and grateful heads. 
Each time, therefore, that you shall help to send food to the scaf¬ 
fold, snatch a victim from poverty, for he alone has a right to 
take away life who can give or restore it. He who kills with¬ 
out saving, resembles the evil genius of Cain, who is the father 
of all homicides. If man wishes to be a judge like unto God, let 
him therefore be a Saviour like him.” 

“ Lord,” replied the juryman, “I have often given alms, and 
have never refused bread to him who asked it of me.” 

“ Therein you have done well,” said the Christ; “ but that is 
not enough ; you are rich, and in that quality you should be the 
father of the poor; you are a judge, and in that terrible function 
you have perhaps made orphans. Now, a father owes himself to 
his family, and he who has made orphans ought to adopt them.” 


56 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


“ How shall I know them ? and how can I take care of them ? 
My whole property perhaps would not be enough.” 

“ The unhappy and the orphans are brothers,” said the 
Saviour, “ and whatever you shall do for the first you meet will 
be counted to you as an acquittance towards the others. Do what 
you can, and you will have accomplished all justice. Let the 
tears of gratitude purify your hands, perhaps dyed with the blood 
of the innocent, and the martyrs themselves will pray and will 
suffer for you, and you shall be saved by the virtue of the blood 
that is shed, as those of my executioners who believed and loved, 
were saved by my cross.” 


ELEVENTH LEGEND. 

THE REPROBATES AND THE ELECT. 

After having said these things, the Christ was moved by the 
sufferings of those who die unjustly condemned, and he felt that 
from his whole heart, full of mercy and forgiveness, overflowed 
an immense love and an infinite blessing for those poor souls who 
depart alone and desolate, after having been cursed and rejected 
by the society of men. 

Then he remembered the crowd which had cried out against 
him with one voice : “ Crucify him !” and the pharisees who 
had laughed and wagged their heads while they insulted his 
agony, and the despairing groan which had at that moment 
escaped from his heart: “ My God! my God! why hast thou 
forsaken me?” Then he transported himself in spirit to the 
confines of the visible world, to that wide extended desert hardly 
lighted by a doubtful twilight, where in a terrible silence wander 
those souls which seek their way. 

There, in the midst of a plain, the mute and shifting soil of 
which seems formed of the ashes of the dead, he found two gates 
formerly built by the power of the first pontiffs: between the two 
gates sat a motionless old man, who seemed no longer to see or to 



THE LAST INCARNATION. 


57 


% 


hear anything. It was the image of him to whom it was formerly 
said: “ Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church.” 

But the rock, formerly living, had become inert and cold, like 
the statues which pray upon tombs. 

Before the two gates pressed a crowd of undecided and ter¬ 
rified souls ; for the figure of stone held two keys in its hand ; 
but it could no longer move its hand, and none could take the 
keys from it in order to open the gates. 

When the Christ appeared in the midst of the souls, radiant 
and with his cross in his hand, they all prostrated themselves, 
pressing around him like an immense flock. 

* . The Christ approached the image of stone, and easily took from 
it the key of heaven; nevertheless, he could not use it to open 
the gate, for, by covering it with gold and silver, it had been 
falsified. 

As to the key of hell, not being able to take it from the hand 
pf the statue, Jesus broke it; then he touched the two gates by 
urns with his cross, and they opened of themselves. 

Then he seated himself near the gate of hell, because that 
flone is dangerous to men, and the gate of heaven needs not to be 
vbuarded. 

\ In fact, the arms of God are always open to his creatures; the 
jaws which he has given to them are laws of love, which should 
draw them to him, and not drive them away. If he threatens, it 
js a paternal warning, and he wishes to turn them from evil, 
because he is anxious for their happiness. 

p Jesus therefore stretched out his cross to close the passage to 
,hose despairing souls who sought the road to hell. Those who 
elieved themselves most culpable, presented themselves the first; 
hey were those unfortunates who had suffered so much in life as 
to kill themselves. 

A woman was on her knees before the Saviour, and she said : 
“ I endured life long and sorrowfully while my children had need 
of me, but I afterwards had need of their assistance, and the labor 
of my poor daughter was not enough for her support and mine: 
I had a son who had devoted himself to the service of the altar, 
but at the moment of receiving the last orders, he confessed that 
he loved, and thy ministers rejected him ! Obliged then to live 
3 * 




53 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


by the work of his hands, when he had never learnt to work, his 
own misfortunes were enough for him; and I voluntarily killed 
myself, in order to relieve my children from the burden of my 
old age.” 

The Christ did not at first answer this woman; he wept. 

Then he said to her with gentleness : “ You are not the author 
of your death ; those who destroyed the future of your son, shall 
answer for it in your stead. Enter into the peace of your God, 
for your devotedness has expiated your sin.” 

And he showed to the poor woman the gate of heaven; but 
she was not willing to enter, “ for,” said she, “ I await my son, 
who still suffers upon the earth, and who will perhaps die sadjy 
like myself, cursed by a Church which he did not wish to 
deceive, and abandoned by a religion which he loved more than 
his life and than mine.” 

A man afterwards presented himself and said to the Lord : “ I 
was not afraid of life ; I loved its combats and its trials ; but I 
saw that I could not live without degrading my mind and my 
heart. 1 was a writer without fortune, and I had not the sad 
courage to barter the sacred gift of eloquence ; but poverty 
would perhaps have weakened my courage, and by degrees 
have debased my soul, and I did not wait for it.” 

“ Why did you despair ?” said the Christ. “ Suffering never 
debases the strong.” 

“Lord, I was weak, inasmuch as I feared.” 

“ Remain, therefore, at the gate of heaven until the time as¬ 
signed for your trials shall be accomplished, for it is not just that 
the workman should rest before he has finished his work. Never¬ 
theless, there is this of good in you, that you fearedf debasement 
more than death, and your sacrifice will live in the remembrance 
of God.” 

Others had killed themselves from despairing love, and the 
Christ did not permit them to rush into hell, where love can 
never enter; but neither could they find rest in heaven except 
with those whom they loved, and they must seek or wait for them. 

And the Christ said: “ It is not the poor, despairing soul that 
should be condemned, but those who allow the poor soul to des- 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


59 


pair. It is not the loving and desolate hearts that must be accused, 
but those who separate what God intended to join together. 

“ Therefore my Father will be less rigorous towards all these 
poor souls, than towards those of the scribes, the pharisees, the 
doctors of the law, and the moralists without heart. For the dis¬ 
owned of the world are the elect of heaven, and the elect of the 
world will be disowned in the kingdom of my Father.” 

After those who had committed suicide, came those women 
who were doubly dead, for they had lost their modesty before 
losing their life. 

One of them, hiding her face, said to the Lord: “ I was only 
a child when my mother sold me. I grew up in shame- and in 
sorrow, weeping over my purity as a fallen angel must weep 
over heaven; but I never abandoned my mother, though she no 
longer deserved that sacred name. I never cursed her, and I 
died of the privations which I imposed on myself for her sake.” 

“ Rise, my daughter,” said the Christ to her, “ go and take 
your seat among the virgins and the martyrs.” 

Now there were at the entrance of the gate of heaven some 
austere souls, whose life had been passed in the practice of a 
scrupulous devotion, and those souls murmured at the clemency 
of the Saviour, and no longer wished to enter heaven when they 
saw that sinning souls were admitted there. 

Jesus said to them : “ It is not I who condemn you, but your 
pride has judged you. Since you no longer wish for heaven, 
where my clemency admits your brothers, the gate of hell is 
open, and I will not close it against you.” 

Thus among those who judged themselves worthy of hell, 
Jesus found many elect for heaven ; and not one of those who 
thought themselves worthy of heaven was found pure enough to 
be admitted there. 

They were therefore sent into the lower circle of trials, into 
that furnace of life militant where fire purifies souls. 

Now, the fire which burns souls to save them is God’s eternal 
love, which is the peace of holy souls and the punishment of the 
wicked. 


60 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


TWELFTH LEGEND. 

THE SERMON ON THE PLAIN. 

At that time the workmen went out from the great city and 
assembled in a neighboring plain, and they said: “We work 
hard during the long hours of day, and we can hardly get a piece 
of bread to carry home to our children at night: our wives are 
compelled to work like ourselves, and life fails them at the same 
time with courage and hope. We build the houses of the rich, 
and we know not where to lay our head ; we weave the stuff of 
their splendid garments, and we are naked ; we sow and we reap 
for them, and we have no wherewithal to prevent us from dying 
of hunger. Let us die therefore if necessary, but let us work no 
longer for false brothers. The time will come when our strength 
will fail us, when early old age, or the disgraceful diseases which 
attack poverty will paralyse us, and then no one will come to our 
assistance, and we shall be compelled to die still more miserably, 
and after having suffered still longer.” 

To this others answered : “ Doubtless we have the right to 
stop working, and to die ; but can we kill our wives and our 
children ? Can we condemn them to the horrible suffering of 
hunger, while we have arms and a heart ?” 

“ What shall we do then ? ” cried all the voices together, 
while fists clenched in suffering and in anger were raised in 
threatening gestures above the heads of the whole crowd. 

“ Death to those who prevent us from living !” cried a voice, 
which was followed by a long and terrible murmur. 

“ Let us march !” cried the most excited. 

“ Stop !” said others, “ where are we going ?” 

“ We are going to fight against the rich.” 

“ But the rich will defend themselves, and will crush us. They 
have public order and its guarantees on their side ; they have the 
law with them, and we have not even a chief to lead us.” 

Nevertheless, in the midst of the crowd, a circle was formed 
around a young man, and several workmen, who recognised him, 
cried out: “ Make room for the apprentice carpenter ! Silence ! 
listen to him ! he will tell us what we must do !” 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


61 


Then came the four journeymen whom the Christ had met upon 
the road, and they said to the workmen : “ Brothers, do not de¬ 
ceive yourselves, for this man is not what he appears to be. If 
he speaks, listen to him as you would listen to God himself, and 
do all that he shall tell you ; for under the humble appearance 
of a workman like ourselves, it is the Christ who has come again 
among men.” 

These words excited murmurs in the assembly. 

The greater number contradicted, others drew near from curi¬ 
osity, and others still, cried out to Jesus ; “ If thou be the Christ, 
prove it by miracles, and we will fall on our knees - and worship 
thee.” 

Jesus answered : “So long as the people groan in servitude, 
they should pray upon their knees, for their very attitude is then 
a prayer: they ask God to raise them. 

“ For this reason, before praying, interrogate your soul. If 
your soul is debased by servitude, if it bows before the terrors of 
death, if it still bends under the power of men like a broken reed, 
fall upon your knees and pray that God may stretch out his hand 
to you. 

“ But if your soul is free, if it is ready to march in order to 
return to its native land, if your will is upright, if nothing chains 
your motions, remain standing while you pray to God, for then 
your head and your heart will be nearer to heaven. 

“ Thus, therefore, standing, or on your knees, around me who 
remain erect and who pray, let us all worship God together, for to 
you I must be only the first worshipper of God. 

“ Now, brothers, remember what I told you so many centuries 
ago, and what you have not yet understood : ‘ Seek first the king¬ 
dom of God and his justice, and all other things shall be given 
unto you in addition.’ Why then should you be troubled about 
what you shall eat and what you shall drink ? Is the kingdom 
of God only in food and in drink ? Out of the kingdom of God 
it is impossible that all shall be fed and lodged and clothed. 

“ Why should you expect the fruits of the promised land out 
of the promised land ? do you believe that the desert can furnish 
to you the beautiful harvests of the fields of Israel ?” 

The workmen listened attentively, but they did not yet under- 


62 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


stand, and one of them, raising his voice, said, “ Master, you do, 
in fact, speak in parables and images like the Christ; are we 
then not yet in a condition to understand, and could you not ex¬ 
press your thought more clearly ? What is that kingdom of God, 
of which you speak ? Is it merely the paradise which the priests 
would have us expect after death ? Is it there only that we can 
hope to be lodged and. fed and clothed ? Do you intend to advise 
us to go to mass and to vespers, in order to better the condition 
of our wives and children ?” 

Jesus answered : “ Did you not learn in your childhood to ask 
God that his kingdom might come, and did you not say to him 
every morning and evening : ‘ Thy will be done on earth as it is 
done in heaven V 

“ The kingdom of God is the reign of the will of God. Now, 
what God wills, is harmony and justice. 

“ The kingdom of God is the reign of liberty, because the true 
children of God can will only good, and must do what they will. 
But in order to will good, it is necessary to know what good is. 
Liberty cannot reign without intelligence. 

“ The kingdom of God is the reign of equality, because the 
stronger owe to the weaker the protection of their strength, and 
the wiser, instead of exploiting the inexperience of the less intel¬ 
ligent, ought to guide them with goodness and without humiliat¬ 
ing them. In order to do all this, it is necessary to love each 
other a great deal. The reign of . equality cannot therefore be 
established without the most perfect charity. And the fulfilling 
of the kingdom of God will be the reign of fraternity ; when 
men will no longer say : ‘Each for himselfbut, ‘each for all 
and all for each.’ 

“ Now, for what purpose have you come into the plain ? 
Have you come to hear the word ? But the time has come when 
truth needs no longer to cry upon the mountain, nor to assemble 
its hearers in the plain; the word now resembles the flowers of 
spring, and the leaves of autumn which the wind scatters 
everywhere. You have come together without knowing what 
you ought to do ; this is why brute force, which knows what it 
desires, will disperse you. 

“ You say that you are strong enough to attack the rich and 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


83 


to overcome them ! But when you shall have opposed violence 
to violence, and disorder to disorder, will peace and harmony be 
the result ? Do you simply wish to rob the robbers and to 
assassinate the assassins, in order to put yourselves in their 
places, so that others may afterwards rob and assassinate you ? 

“ Because your house is inconvenient, will you burn or destroy 
it before having built a new one, and before even knowing upon 
what plan you will build it ? 

“ You ask what is the kingdom of God: it is the kingdom of, 
peace and harmony. 

“ Look at the sky and see the spheres move without confusion 
around their centres ! Look at the earth and consider the regular 
movement of the seasons, and the harmonious progress of vegeta¬ 
tion and life ! 

“ Do you know what attractions and what forces make so 
many stars gravitate around one and the same sun ? have you 
taken the compass of God to measure the distances and balance 
the various attractions ? Do you know exactly by what degrees 
of heat and cold the germs are preserved, developed and ferti¬ 
lized ? You say to God : ‘ Thy will be done on earth as it is 
done in heaven,’ and you do not think that the social universe 
has its attractions and its laws of equilibrium as well as the 
celestial universe. Now, do you know those laws ? 

“Be not terrified, nevertheless, and be not discouraged, for 
God knows that of which you are ignorant. He has himself 
meditated the plan of the grand human harmony, and in order to 
assign to each of you his place, he has magnetized you as he has 
the stars. Know then, before all, that your rule is not your in¬ 
dividual caprice, badly regulated by a falsified understanding, 
and that your law should not be the erroneous opinion of the 
world ! 

“ I said ‘ woe to the world,’ and I shall still repeat it, so long 
as it has eyes with which it does not see, and ears with which it 
does not hear. 

“ Until this day, charity has been a sacrifice, and devotedness 
a martyrdom. But why should charity, which ought to be the 
life of all, triumph only in the death of the elect ? 

“ Well! I tell you now that charity is not only the life of 


64 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


heaven, but also that of the earth, and that the devotedness of 
heroes must become the happiness of the weakest children. 

“ Have I not told you that goodness and gentleness must one 
day possess the earth ? 

“ Have I not told you that if two or three were met together in 
my name, I would be in the midst of them ? and if I said two or 
three, what shall I say of two or three hundred thousand ? 

“ Have I not told you : ‘ Happy are the peacemakers, for 
9 they shall be called the children of God ?’ 

“ If two or three hundred thousand of you have met in the 
plain, and each one has his individual thought, you are only a 
dangerous assemblage, useless for your salvation. But let a 
thousand men dispersed in their houses and in their workshops be 
united in the same thought, and direct their efforts towards one 
and the same object: there will be a real power capable of lead¬ 
ing a great people. 

“ Do you wish to be free ? Be strong. 

“ Do you wish to be strong ? Be united. 

“ Do you wish to be united ? Be intelligent and good. 

“ Do you wisli to be intelligent and good ? Be just. 

“ Before asking justice then of those who oppress you, cause 
justice to reign in your midst. 

“ Be not a crowd, be a people ; be not a mass, be a body. 
And in order that this body may live, let charity be its soul ! 

“ You wish to destroy evil! then first do all the good you can; 
for good is the antidote of evil, and you can destroy evil only by 
opposing good to it. 

“ Do you know how twelve workmen conquered the world ? 
They first sought the kingdom of God and his justice, they united 
themselves inseparably in the same spirit and the same love, then 
they dispersed and they were always together. 

“ I said to you : ‘ Happy are the poor in spirit,’ because the 
kingdom of intelligence had not yet come, and it was necessary 
to save the world by faith ; and now I say to you : ‘ Happy are 
those who are rich in intelligence,’ because they dispose of the 
powers of the spirit of truth ! 

“ You know that I had still many things to say to you, but you 
could not bear them then: now comes the spirit of intelligence 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


65 


which will make you understand what I said to you and divine 
what I did not say to you. But know that the spirit of intelli¬ 
gence is a spirit of gentleness, and this is why religious symbols 
represent it under the form of a dove. 

“ Violence consumes and destroys itself, and all the tyrannies of 
the world can do nothing against a will which is founded on 
justice. 

“ Therefore, before destroying the city of men, labor to build 
the city of God. The city of God must first be realized in a 
people, for the people is to the city what the soul is to the body, 
what the body is to the garment. 

“ Have, therefore, all of you, one same spirit and one same 
will ; cause the spirit of gentleness and of peace to reign in 
your houses; seek not the forgetfulness of your miseries in an 
intemperance which increases your misery and destroys your 
health ; neglect no means of instructing yourselves; let every¬ 
thing that is yours be also your brethren’s, and let your brethren’s 
sufferings be also yours, and you will be the people of God. 

“ Then, I tell you in truth that your masters of to-day will be 
your servants, and you will begin to reign over the world.” 

As Jesus finished speaking, an officer of the police and some 
soldiers appeared, summoning the workmen to disperse. 

Then all looked at Jesus, who, stretching forth his hands, said 
to them : “ Obey as I obeyed. I brought into the world a new 
law, and I destroyed the old law only by submitting myself to it, 
even unto death. 

“ Disperse, and carry with you the remembrance of my word-: 
it is that will reunite you.” 

Immediately the workmen dispersed, and the officer of police, 
wishing to give proof of his zeal, approached Jesus and ordered the 
soldiers to arrest him as one who had spoken at a seditious meeting. 

But Jesus suddenly disappeared, so that those men looked for 
him on one side and on the other, and mutually blamed each 
other for having let him escape. 

Now, Jesus left them in this manner, not because he had to 
fear a new passion in that spiritual and symbolic state in which 
he can no longer suffer, except in the person of his brothers, but 
in order to spare a new crime to unintelligent judges. 


66 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


THIRTEENTH LEGEND. 

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. 

At that time, the Christ passed by the field of tombs, and he 
there saw a young man who was on his knees and was weeping 
before a cross. 

On seeing this young man, Jesus had pity on his sorrow, and 
drawing near, said to him : “ Why do you weep ?” 

He who was weeping turned round, and stretching out his 
hand answered : “ My mother has been here for three days.” 

Jesus said to him : “ Believe me, my son, your mother is not 
here ; only the last vestment which she put olf has been deposited 
here ; why do you weep over those insensible remains ? Rise 
up and walk ; your mother waits for you.” 

The young man shook his head sadly and said : “1 will not 
rise, and I will not walk to go and seek death; 1 shall await it 
and it will come ; and then, I know, I shall be again united to 
my mother.” 

Then the Christ: “ Death awaits death, and life seeks life ! 
Do not sadden the soul which has preceded you by a selfish and 
sterile sorrow; do not retard her progress towards God by your 
despair and inertness. For her love still lives in your heart, and 
you will not have lost her if you make her live worthily in you. 
Instead of weeping for your mother, resuscitate her! Do not 
look at me with astonishment, and do not think I make a jest of 
your sorrow! She whom you regret is near you; one of the 
veils which separated your souls has fallen ; one still remains. 
And separated only by that veil, you ought to live for each other; 
you will work for her and she will work for you.” 

“ How shall I work for her ?” replied the orphan; “ she no 
longer needs anything now that she is in the ground.” 

“ You deceive yourself, my son, and you still confound the 
body with the clothing. In the world of spirits, she has more 
than ever need of intelligence and love. Now, you are the life 
of her heart, and the engrossing thought of her mind, and she 
calls you to her assistance: in order that you may go through 
life doing good, and in order that you may reach her with full 
hands when God shall re-unite you. 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


67 


“ In order to have the right to rest, man must work. Now, if 
you do not work for your mother, you shackle her soul. This is 
why I said to you : Rise up and walk, because the soul of your 
mother will rise and will walk with you, and you will resuscitate 
her in yourself if you make her thought and her love fruitful. 

“ She has a body upon earth, it is yours; you have a soul in 
heaven, it is hers. Let that soul and that body walk together, 
and your mother will live again. Believe me, my son, thought 
and love never die, and those whom you believe to be dead are 
more alive than you, if they think and love more. 

“ If the thought of death saddens and terrifies you, take refuge 
in the bosom of life ; there you will find all those whom you love. 
The dead are those who do not think and who do not love ; for they 
work for corruption and corruption consumes them in its turn. 
Let the dead then weep for the dead, and live with the living ! 

“ Love is the bond of souls ; and when it is pure, that bond is 
indestructible. Your mother precedes you, she goes towards 
God ; but she is still chained to you ; and if you slumber in 
torpor and in selfish sorrow, she will be compelled to wait for 
you, and she will suffer. 

“ But I tell you in truth that all the good which you shall do will 
be reckoned to her soul, and that if you do evil, she will volun- 
tarily undergo its penalty. This is why I say to you : If you 
love her, live for her.” 

Then the young man rose, and his tears ceased to flow, and he 
looked upon the face of the Saviour with astonishment, for the 
countenance of the Christ was radiant with intelligence and love, 
and immortality shone in his eyes. 

Then he took the young man by the hand and said to him : 
“ Come.” 

Then he led him up on a hill which overlooked the whole city, 
and he said to him : “ There is the real field of tombs! 

“ Below there, in those palaces which sadden the horizon, there 
are dead persons who should be wept for much more than those 
whose remains are here, for those persons do not rest. They 
move about in corruption and dispute with the worms for their 
food; they are like a man who has been buried alive. Their 
chest wants the air of heaven, and the earth weighs heavy upon 


68 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


them. They are nailed in the narrow and miserable institutions 
which they have made, as in the boards of a coffin. 

“ Young man, who wept, and whose tears my words have dried, 
weep now and groan over the dead who still suffer ! weep over 
those who believe themselves alive and who are tormented corpses ! 
It is to those that a powerful voice should cry: come out from 
your tombs ! Oh ! when will the trumpet of the angel sound ? 

“ The angel that must awaken the world, is the angel of intel¬ 
ligence ; the angel that must save the world, is the angel of 
love. 

“ The light will be as the lightning which rises at the east and 
which is seen at the west at the same moment; at its voice the 
body of the Christ, which is the fraternal bread, will be revealed 
to all, and around the body which must feed them, the eagles will 
gather together. 

“ Then the human word, freed from selfish interests, will be 
united to the divine word. And the unitary voice, resounding 
through the entire world, will be the trumpet of the angel. 

“ Then the living will rise, the living who have been thought 
dead, and who still suffer while awaiting their deliverance. Then 
all who are not dead will march forward and will go to the presence 
of the Lord ; while the ashes of those who no longer exist will be 
swept away by the wind. 

“ Young man, hold yourself ready, and take care not to die! 
Live for those whom you love, and love those who live, and do 
not weep for those who have ascended a step higher than your¬ 
self upon the ladder of life ; weep for those who are dead! 

“ Your mother loved you, consequently loves you still more 
now that her thought and her love are freed from the weight of 
earth. Weep for those who do not think of you, and who do not 
love you. 

“ For I tell you in truth, that humanity has but one body and 
one soul, and that it lives everywhere that it feels itself work and 
suffer. 

“ Now, a member which is no longer sensible to the wellbeing, 
or the suffering of the other members, is dead and must soon be 
cut off.” 

Having said these things, the Christ disappeared from the eyes 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


of the young man, who, after having remained for some moments 
motionless, and as if struck by the remembrance of a dream, 
silently resumed the road to the city, saying to himself: “ I will 
seek the living among the dead. I will do good to all those who 
suffer, by suffering with them and loving them, in order that the 
soul of my mother may know it and may bless me in heaven. 

“ For I understand now that heaven is not far from us, and that 
the soul is to the body what the natural sky is to the earth. The 
sky which surrounds and supports the earth is filled with immen¬ 
sity, as the soul is intoxicated with God himself. 

“ And those who live in the same thought and in the same 
love can never be separated.” 


FOURTEENTH LEGEND. 

THE DISCOURAGED PHILOSOPHER. 

At that time there was a man who had studied all the sciences, 
and had meditated upon all systems, and who had come to doubt 
all things. 

Being itself appeared to him a dream, because he found no 
sufficient cause. He had sought for the nature of God and had not 
divined it, for he had never loved. And his intellect had become 
darkened, like the eye of him who looks fixedly at the sun. This 
is why he was sad and discouraged. 

Jesus, who thinks of the dead and who loves to cure the blind, 
had pity upon that poor diseased intellect and that extinguished 
heart; and he entered one evening into the solitary chamber of 
the philosopher. 

He was a pale man, bald, with hollow eyes, with furrowed 
brow and disdainful lips. 

He was watching alone, seated by a little table covered with 
papers and with books; but he no longer read and no longer 
wrote. 

Doubt bowed his head as if under a hand of lead, his fixed eyes 



70 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


did not see, and his mouth smiled vaguely with a profound bit¬ 
terness. 

His lamp was consuming by his side, and his hours passed in 
silence without hope and without remembrance. 

Jesus remained near him without saying anything, and lifting 
his eyes to heaven he prayed. 

The philosopher slowly raised his head, then he shook it and 
let it fall again, murmuring in a low voice : “ Visionary.” 

“ Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name !” said 
Jesus. 

“ He let you die upon the cross,” returned the thinker, “ and 
you cried to him in vain: ‘ My God! my God! why hast thou 
forsaken me V ” 

“ May thy kingdom come !” continued the Saviour. 

“ We have been waiting for it these eighteen hundred and 
forty years,” said the philosopher, “ and it is further off now 
than ever.” 

“What do you know about it?” then said the Master, looking 
upon him with a gentle and serious eye. 

“ I do not know even what is the kingdom of God which is to 
come,” replied the philosopher. “ If there be a God, he reigns 
now or he will never reign. Now, as I do not see the kingdom of 
God, I do not expect it; and I do not even seek any longer to 
know if there be a God.” 

“ Do you also doubt the existence of good and evil ?” asked 
Jesus. 

“ The distinction between them is arbitrary, since it varies ac¬ 
cording to lime and place.” 

“ Put your finger into the flame of your lamp,” said the Saviour. 
“ Why do you draw it back so quickly ? do you not know that a 
thinker like yourself has said that pain is not an evil ?” 

“ The reason is because I do not agree with him, but I do not 
know if I am more right than he.” 

“ Why do you not agree with him ?” 

“ Because I feel the pain and it is invincibly repugnant to me.” 

“ The distinction between good and evil is not arbitrary there¬ 
fore so far as relates to your repugnances and attractions,” then 
said Jesus. “ And in fact evil could not be absolute. Evil exists 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


71 


only for you and for all beings which are still imperfect. It is 
for such therefore that the kingdom of God must come, because 
they themselves will come into the kingdom of God. I have con¬ 
vinced you of a physical repugnance, and I will convince you as 
easily of a moral repugnance. The fire warns you by pain that 
it would destroy the life of your body, and conscience warns you 
by its cries and its remorse, that crime would destroy the life of 
your soul. Evil for you, is destruction ; good is life, and life is 
God ! The earth buried in darkness now awaits the coming of 
the sun, and yet the sun remains radiant in the centre of the 
universe, and it is the earth which gravitates around it. God 
reigns, but you have not yet entered into his kingdom ; for the 
kingdom of my father is the kingdom of science and of love, of 
wisdom and of peace. The kingdom of God is the kingdom of 
light, and that light strikes your eyes which do not see it, because 
they seek their brightness in themselves and find only darkness.” 

“ Lord, open thou my eyes,” said the philosopher, “ and illu¬ 
mine my darkness.” 

Jesus said to him : “ If I had closed your eyes, I ought to open 
them for you ; but if I open them and you please to close them 
again, how shall you see the light 1 Do you not know that the 
will of a man acts upon the lids of his eyes, and that if he is 
forced to keep his eyes open or shut, he loses his sight 1 

“ I may induce you to kindle in yourself the fire which en¬ 
lightens, and this is why I make you hear my words; and since 
you already desire that I should open your eyes, you are not far 
from seeing.” 

“ What is the fire which enlightens ? ” asked the philosopher. 

“ You will know,” said the Christ, “ when you shall have loved 
a great deal. For if reason is like a lamp, love is its flame. If 
reason is as the eye of our soul, love is its strength and its life. 
A great reason without love is a beautiful eye that is dead ; it is 
a lamp richly carved, but cold and extinct. 

“ When the selfishness of the animal passions had caused human 
philosophy to fail, I saved the world by faith, because faith is the 
philosophy of love. You believe those whom you love, and those 
by whom you know yourself to be loved : thus I gave an immense 
charity as a basis to faith, when I and my apostles had proved 


72 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


to men, by a bloody martyrdom, the sincerity of our love. And 
so long as the Church reigned by charity, she triumphed by faith ; 
but faith awaits intelligence, and the moment is near when those 
who shall have believed without seeing, will understand and see. 

“ If therefore you wish to understand, begin by loving, in order 
to believe.” 

“ What then shall I believe, Lord ? ” 

“ Everything of which you are ignorant; for faith is the trust 
of reasonable ignorance. Believe everything that God knows, 
and your faith will embrace immensity. Trust to your celestial 
Father everything of which he reserves to himself the knowledge, 
and do not be anxious at first about the infinite destinies. Love 
that immense wisdom whose child you are ; love other men who 
pass over the earth ignorant like yourself, and for the present 
still limit your science to the accomplishment of your duties; 
you will soon see it grow of its own accord, and ascend towards 
God, for God allows himself to be seen by pure hearts.” 

“ Oh ! to see God ! ” cried the philosopher, opening his trem¬ 
bling lips, like a man who is thirsty and who expects the rain from 
heaven. " Oh ! to reunite at last in my thought all the scattered 
rays of that truth which I have so much loved, and which always 
escaped me! But who will give me that immense love which 
makes man commune with God, and will bring him near to the 
centre of all light ? ” 

“ You will deserve it by your works,” said the Christ, “ for if 
man is corrupted in the works of corruption, if he is destroyed 
in the works of hatred, he grows and is saved by works of love. 
In order to draw near to God, he must adyance, and holy actions 
are the movements of our soul.” 

“ What are really holy actions 1 v asked the doctor; “ are 
they prayer and fasting ? ” 

“ Listen,” said the Christ, “ and do not rashly judge your 
brothers who have passed before you, seeking and weeping. 
Humanity is confirmed in its desire by prayer and tears. And 
those of its children who first thirsted for the things of heaven, 
abstained from those of the earth ; but all this was only the be¬ 
ginning. It was necessary to know how to abstain, in order to 
learn how to use, It was first necessary to sacrifice the body to 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


73 


the mind, in order to emancipate the mind. For the moral 
heaven is the liberty of the soul; but the soul is called upon to 
govern the body, and not to destroy it; as the material sky go¬ 
verns the earth and does not destroy it. The age of prayer and 
tears, must give place to the age of labor and hope; for the 
prayer of the ancients was a labor, and it is necessary that our 
labor should be a more efficacious and more active prayer.” 

“ How shall I labor ? ” said the philosopher; “ I can do 
nothing useful.” 

“ Then you have lost the vigor of your mind in vain efforts,” 
replied the Christ: “ you have not even learnt how to live, you 
who wished to know everything. Become again a little child, 
and go to the school of love. Learn to love and to do good, that 
is the science of life. 

“ Remember the legend of Christophorus. He was a terrible 
giant, but as he did not know how to use his strength, he was as 
weak as a child. He therefore required a guardian, and he 
placed himself in the service of a king ; but the king was ill, 
and Christophorus left him. He sought for him who could make 
kings suffer; and as he knew not God, he first attached himself 
to the genius of evil. But one day a cross appeared upon a rock, 
and the genius of evil fell as if struck by lightning. Then Chris¬ 
tophorus sought for him of whom the cross is the sign, and an old 
man told him that he would find him by doing good. Christo¬ 
phorus knew not how to pray or to work, but he was strong and 
very tall, and he carried on his shoulders the wandering travel¬ 
lers who wished to cross the torrent. Now, one evening he car¬ 
ried a little child, under whom he bent as if he were carrying 
the world, for in the person of the poor wandering orphan he 
recognised the great God whom he sought. 

“ Do you understand this parable ? ” 

“ Yes, Lord,” said the philosopher, who was now a Christian. 

“ Well! go and do as did Christophorus; carry the Christ 
when he faints with fatigue, or when the torrents of the world 
obstruct his passage. Suffering humanity shall be the Christ for 
you. Be the eye of the poor man, the arm of the weak, and the 
staff of the old man ; and God will tell you the great wherefore 
of the human race.” 


4 


74 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


“ I will do it, Lord ; and I feel that henceforth I shall not be 
alone in the world. To which of my brothers shall I first extend 
my hand ? ” 

“ To him who is more unhappy than you, and who, unknown 
to you, is expiring in the little chamber next to yours. Go then 
to his assistance, speak to him in order that he may hope, love 
him that he may believe, make yourself loved by him that he 
may live.” 

“ Lead me to him, Lord, and speak to him for me.” 

“ Come and see,” said the Saviour, and he lightly touched the 
wall, which opened in the midst like a double curtain, and the 
philosopher was transported in the spirit to the chamber next his 
own. It was that of a young poet who was about dying deserted. 


FIFTEENTH LEGEND. 

THE DYING POET. 

At that time there was a young man who, early in life, had 
heard in his soul the echo of the universal harmonies. Now, 
that internal music had distracted his attention from all things of 
mortal life, because he lived in a society which was still without 
harmony. 

While a child, he was the butt of other children, who took him 
for an idiot; when a young man, he hardly found a hand to clasp 
his hand, a heart on which to rest his heart. 

His days passed in a long silence and in a profound revery; 
he looked with strange ecstasy upon the sky, the water, the trees, 
the verdant fields; then his eyes became fixed, internal glories 
were displayed in his mind, and surpassed the glories of nature. 
Then tears flowed unwittingly down his cheeks, pale with emo¬ 
tion, and, if any one spoke to him, he did not hear. Therefore 
he was seldom spoken to, and was quite generally looked upon 
as crazy. 

He thus lived alone with God and with nature, speaking to 



THE LAST INCARNATION. 


75 


God in the language of harmony, and letting fall upon the earth 
songs to which no one listened. 

But the material necessities of life at last seized him in their in¬ 
extricable net; he awoke upon the earth, still dazzled by his visions 
of heaven ; and when he wished to walk, he stumbled against 
men and against things, until he fell panting and despairing. 

It was then that he shut himself up in his poor abode, and there 
awaited death. 

It was then that the Christ looked upon him and had compas¬ 
sion on him. 

The poet’s chamber was gloomy, bare and cold ; he was only 
half covered by a few wornout garments; stretched upon a sad 
bed of straw, he was restless with fever, and his eyes glistened 
with a dark fire. 

The Christ appeared to him clothed in a white robe, an emblem 
of madness which he had received from Herod, and his brow was 
crowned at the same time with the bloody thorns, and with an 
aureole of glory. 

“ Brother,” said he to the poor sick man, looking upon him 
with an ineffable love, “ why do you wish to die ? ” 

“ Because one can no longer live upon the earth after having 
seen heaven,” sighed the poet. 

“ And I, in order to live and suffer upon the earth, have never¬ 
theless descended from heaven,” returned Jesus. 

“ You are the Son of God and you are strong.” 

“ And I wished to be the son of man, in order to hunger, to 
fear and to weep. Did I not faint in the garden of Olives ? 
Did I not groan upon the cross as if God had forsaken me ?” 

“Well! I,” said the sick man, “I go forth from life as you 
went forth from the garden of Olives, and I am upon my bed of 
pain as you were upon the cross.” 

“ If I had done nothing but pray to my father in the valleys 
while I breathed the perfume of the roses of Sharon, if I had 
silently intoxicated myself with the ecstasies of Mount Tabor, I 
should not have deserved to ransom the world upon the cross,” 
replied the Saviour. “ But I sought for the sheep that had stray¬ 
ed, and in order to stop my feet which ran without ceasing after 
the miseries of the people, it was necessary that they should be 


76 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


nailed by the executioners. It was necessary to pierce my hands 
in order to prevent them from breaking bread for the famished 
multitudes; and then, when I had nothing more to give to my 
brothers, I allowed all my blood to flow.” 

“ I have sung,” said the poet, “ and men have not listened 
to me.” 

“ That is because you sang for yourself alone, and because 
you too much disdained their disdain. You should, after the ex¬ 
ample of the eternal word, have descended sufficiently to make 
yourself understood.” 

“ Perhaps, instead of forgetting me, they would then have 
crucified me.” 

“ And then only, O my brother, would it have been beautiful 
to die in order to rise again glorious !” 

“ Master, instead of consoling me in my last hour, do you come 
to terrify and to reproach me ?” 

“ I come to cure you and to inspire you with courage to live, 
in order to enable you to deserve a quiet death and one full of 
immortality. 

“ Why do you wish to live only in heaven during the days 
which God gives you to pass upon the earth ? Why do you 
permit the immense love of your heart to be lost in vague aspi¬ 
rations ? Why do you isolate yourself in the pride of your 
dreams, while real sorrows bleed and palpitate about you ? 

“ God did not give you the celestial balm for the purpose of 
perfuming your head; he did not intrust to you the wine of his 
chalice in order that you might intoxicate your mouth and dis¬ 
gust it with the bitter things of earth. You ought to soothe, to 
elevate, to console : you ought to be the physician of souls, and 
now you yourself, because you have concealed the remedies of 
God, are more ill than the others. 

“ Men have not understood you, you say; but it is you, poor 
young man, who have not understood your brothers. 

“ What! your intellect was superior, and you did not know 
how to speak to the poor in spirit! You thought yourself great, 
and you were afraid to lower yourself in order to bring your 
mouth near to the ear of those who were small! You loved, and 
you were disgusted by the infirmities of men ! 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


77 


“ Rise up, poor fallen angel, and again begin your mission ! 
Know that the spirit of harmony is the spirit of love which I 
announced to the world under the name of the consoler. If it is 
the Holy Ghost which animates you, be henceforth the consoler 
of your brothers, and in order to have the right and the power to 
console them, learn to suffer and to work with them. 

“I was greater than you, and more than you I raised my soul 
to the bosom of the eternal harmonies; and yet I passed my life 
working with the carpenters and conversing with the poor, 
enlightening their minds, moving their hearts and curing their 
diseases. Until now you have made poetry only in dreams and 
in words, but the time has come to make poetry in actions l For 
everything that is done from love of humanity, everything that 
is devotedness, sacrifice, patience, courage and perseverance, 
everything of this nature is sublime with harmony, is the poetry 
of martyrs. 

“ Instead of vaguely loving the infinite, try to love infinitely 
your brothers who are near to you. Here is one whom I bring 
to you; he suffered like you, and he had arrived at extinction 
of thought because he had isolated the labor of his mind, as you 
had arrived at despair of heart, because you had isolated your 
love. Henceforth you will both know that it is not good for man 
to be alone.” 

The philosopher who had become a Christian then approached 
the bed of the sick man, whose fever had been suddenly calmed 
by the gentle and severe words of Jesus, and said to him: 
“ Brother, accept my cares and half of the bread which remains 
to me: to-morrow we will work together, and when I shall be ill 
in my turn, you will take care of me and you will have bread 
for me. 

“ Brother, because you have seen heaven, do not break the 
ladder which will enable you to ascend thither, but rather take 
me by the hand and lead me, for I have thought much and 
meditated much, and I now feel that I have not loved enough. 

“You, whose voice is the living echo of eternal harmony, you 
are a child of celestial love, for from the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaketh. But love could not become selfish without 


78 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


killing itself, and it can find fulness of life only by giving itself 
wholly to others. 

“ Live therefore in order that I may love you, for if I love I 
shall be happy ; and if you love God, you desire the happiness 
of those who are the children of God like yourself. Harmony is 
at once science and poetry, mathematical exactness is the great 
law of beauty, and the harmonic glories are the divine reason of 
numbers j but all this, to be living and real, must be applied to 
what is. 

“ Brother, the positive of God is a thousand fold more poetical 
than the ideal of man. Let us seek God in humanity, and let us 
not despair of its destinies ; for its very disorders lead it to har¬ 
mony, and if God has counted us in the number of those who 
first see whither this wandering people must go through the 
desert, let us place ourselves at the head of this great and labo¬ 
rious movement, instead of isolating ourselves and dying.” 

“ Brother, thanks to you,” said the poet, “ and thanks to 
heaven which inspires you ! henceforth I will no longer with¬ 
draw from the field of battle in order to die alone, while I can 
still fight; I should esteem myself a coward and a deserter. If 
I fall with arms in hand in the first or second rank of the huma- 
nitary militia, I shall die full of courage and blessing God, and 
my soul will not present itself alone before the supreme judge.” 

From that day, the philosopher and the poet were united in a 
holy friendship, and sometimes they did not disdain the most 
humble labors to support their life. 

Thus they went through all classes of society and everywhere 
found diseased hearts which awaited the balm of a word of wis¬ 
dom and of love. Everywhere they felt that they could still do 
good, and the sufferings of life seemed light to them ; for they 
bore them with courage, in order to inspire with courage those 
who suffered like themselves, and devotedness gave them new 
strength. 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


79 


SIXTEENTH LEGEND. 

THE NEW NICODEMUS. 

There was at that time a priest who loved the truth, and who 
sought for good in all the sincerity of his heart. 

Now, one night when he was watching and praying, the Christ 
came and seated himself by his side and looked upon him with 
goodness. 

“ Master, is it you at last ?” said the pastor. “ I have sought 
you for a long time, and now you come to me during the night!” 

Jesus answered him : “Nicodemus came to see me during the 
night, because he was afraid of the Jews: I know that your ex¬ 
istence depends upon the new synagogue, and I do not wish to 
compromise you. For the scribes and the pharisees and the 
false doctors of the law still persecute me and persecute those 
who receive me. 

“ Lord,” said the priest with sadness, “ the glorious years of 
which the beautiful ages of the church are composed have then 
been fruitless for the future ! Does truth then always escape 
from the ardent aspirations of men ? the saints and the martyrs 
were then deceived, since eighteen centuries of combats and of 
study have only made enemies to you of those who ought to be 
your ministers !” 

Jesus said to him : “ They are not all my enemies, and my 
father still reckons among them generous souls and pure hearts. 
I shall go to them as I have come to you, in order to recall to 
them the signs of the times and to open their eyes so that they 
may see. 

“ I still come in secret to explain to you what I taught in secret 
to that doctor of the ancient law, who was also a man of good 
will. 

“ I told him that the entrance to the kingdom of God was a new 
birth. The life of the world is an incessantly renewed genera¬ 
tion, and it is necessary that the germs of the year which dies 
should be deposited in the earth in order to prepare the riches of 
the year which shall be born. But new wine must not be put into 
old bottles. 


80 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


“ My father’s vine is never sterile, and from year to year it 
renews its fruits; but he calls the vinedressers at different hours 
of the day. This is why I called the faithful doctors of the an¬ 
cient law to a new birth, for their old mother, the Jewish syna¬ 
gogue, was dying, and in order to be born it was necessary to 
leave her bosom. And those who believed left the dead body of 
the synagogue while they remained united to its soul, and they 
were the first children of the universal Church. 

“ But the universal Church was a new heaven and a new earth ; 
and in order to renew all things it was first necessary to fight 
against all the powers of heaven and of earth. This is why the 
first Christians built an ark to struggle against the unchaining of 
the winds and the rising of the waters. That ark was the hier¬ 
archical Church, the holy Catholic Church, the guardian of the 
symbol of unity. 

“ So long as the ark is borne by the waters, it moves under the 
breath of God, and in its bosom every living soul seeks a refuge : 
but, as soon as it stops, the new family must come out from it in 
order to re-people the earth, and this is the new birth of which I 
have spoken to you.” 

The priest said to him : “ Lord, must I leave the Catholic 
church ? But to what other church could I unite myself?” 

“1 do not tell you to leave the Catholic Church,” returned Jesus, 
“ but I invite you to enter into it. I tell you to free yourself from 
shadows in order to begin to live in the light. I tell you to leave 
the school in order to enter into society and to apply to it the sci¬ 
ence which you must have acquired ! 

“ I did not come to destroy the ancient law, but to give to it its 
accomplishment, and I now come to accomplish the new law. 

“ Have I not said : Believe first and you will understand after¬ 
wards, and you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you 
free ? 

“ Have I not said that my second coming would be as the light 
which strikes the eyes of all, and which shines at once upon the 
whole world ? 

“ Have I not announced that the spirit of intelligence would 
come and that it would suggest to my disciples the complement 
of my words ? And do not your symbols say that the spirit of 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


81 


intelligence is the spirit of love which must produce a new cre¬ 
ation and make young again the face of the earth ? Now, is not 
the spirit of love that spirit of order and of harmony which must 
associate all men, and make them all commune in divine and 
human unity ? 

“ Come out then from all the bonds which prevent brothers 
from advancing towards their brothers, overthrow the barriers 
which separate, enlarge the abodes which are isolated, escape 
from the doctrines which reprove some and elect others, leave the 
blinded synagogue, enter into the Catholic Church, which is now 
no longer a conventicle of priests and of doctors, but the univer¬ 
sal association of all men of intelligence and love.” 

“ Lord,” said the priest, “ I will do all that you say. Whither 
shall I first go and where shall I begin ?” 

li Remain where you are,” said Jesus, “ and do what you have 
to do. Teach children, catechize the poor, visit the sick and 
pray for the people. Let nothing be changed in your works, but 
let a universal love vivify them and make them fruitful ! 

“ Preach mercy and peace, preach modesty and the forgiveness 
of injuries, preach holy aspirations towards God and union among 
brothers ! Let charity be the law of your soul, and you will 
not impose upon the souls of others constraints which drive them 
to despair! Be gentle and humble of heart as were my first 
disciples, when you speak to women, to children and to the poor 
people; but be inflexible as were my martyrs, when any one 
attempts to corrupt or to intimidate you. 

a What I say to you, 1 say for all those who, like you, shall 
believe in the spirit of intelligence and love ; and this is why I 
address my words to many. 

“ Do not confound the spirit of abstinence with the spirit of death; 
for I ordered my disciples to abstain for a while from the riches 
of their father, only that they might learn to use those riches 
worthily. 

u I tell you in truth that I have not come to kill the flesh, but 
to save it by subjecting it to the spirit. For there should be no 
division between the spirit and the flesh of man : God has created 

and blessed them equally. 

4* 


82 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


“ The spirit is the king of the flesh : a king must not reign in 
order to destroy. 

“ The organs and the senses are the subjects of the intellect: a 
king should prevent his subjects from doing evil; but he should 
also provide for their prosperity and happiness. 

“ Is not attraction then the general law of beings, and is not 
equilibrium the harmony of attractions ? 

“ Let not the spirit then break the flesh, and let not the flesh 
extinguish the spirit! For either of these excesses would be 
death ! 

“ Now, I have not come to kill those who lived, I have come 
to restore health to those who were sick and life to those who were 
dead!” 

Having said all these things, Jesus disappeared from the eyes 
of the good priest, and left him full of hope and of courage; for 
he saw the power of God supply from age to age the shortcomings 
of men, and he understood how religion advances always through 
the ages, growing and triumphing always. 


SEVENTEENTH LEGEND. 

THE TOMB OF SAINT JOHN. 

At that time Jesus traversed with the rapidity of the spirit all the 
countries of the earth. All were sad and expectant. And every¬ 
where the Christ was still alone, as in the garden of Olives. 

He entered, as a poor pilgrim, into the basilica of Saint Peter, 
where no one recognised him : he approached the tomb of his 
apostles, in order to see if their relics were ready for resurrec¬ 
tion ; but the ashes of the saints were cold, and they continued to 
sleep their sleep. 

Now, there is one of those apostles who, according to the tra¬ 
dition, was never to die; he whom the symbolic painting repre¬ 
sents to us as always young, and who has an eagle for emblem : 



THE LAST INCARNATION. 83 

it is the one who is called the apostle of charity and the disciple 
of love. 

It is this one, say the legends of the earlier times, who is to 
awake at the end of the ages, in order to save the world, by re¬ 
kindling the holy fire of fraternal charity ; and, in fact, say those 
same legends, his remains were never found: the faithful of 
Ephesus thought to bury him, and retain him among them, but 
the angels came and hid the sleeping apostle in the solitudes of 
Patmos. 

Jesus therefore transported himself into the island of Patmos, 
which seemed still terrified by the noise of the seven thunders, 
and he approached the grotto where slept his faithful disciple. 
At the entrance of the tomb, a celestial form was seated motion¬ 
less ; it was like a woman, clothed in a long azure mantle, which 
covered her head, and enveloped her entirely, falling around her 
in large folds. 

Her pale and somewhat elongated hands were clasped with 
fervor • and her eyes, full of a resigned sadness and an infinite 
hope, were fixed upon the tomb. 

Jesus approached her, and said : “ My mother, is it you ? You 
doubtless knew that I would come here V 

“ I did know it, my son,” replied Mary; “ for you tenderly 
loved him who rests here ; and when you were about to die, you 
confided me to him, saying unto him: ‘ Behold your mother!’ 

“ Now, in order that I may be able to return upon the earth 
in the person of the women who shall understand what it is to be 
mothers, it is necessary that the disciple of love should revive in 
order to protect me. For in the person of all women of intelli¬ 
gence and love, I must bring you into the world a second time, 
0 my son !” # 

“ Mother,” returned Jesus, “ do you remember what the angel 
said to the women who sought me in the sepulchre ? ‘ Why do 

you seek the living among the dead ? He has risen, he is no 
longer here.’ 

“ You know that the prophet Elias, according to the traditions 
of the Jews, was to return upon the earth, in order to prepare 
the way for me. The form of Elias was transfigured, and his 
spirit returned in the person of John the Baptist. 


84 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


“ Thus, I tell you in truth that you live now upon the earth in 
the person of all women who feel the hope of the future thrill in 
their bosom. This is why, my mother, you this day appear for 
the last time under your symbolic figure. 

“ John, my beloved disciple, bequeathed his spirit to all the 
men full of faith and love, who wish to build the new Jerusalem, 
the holy city of harmony, and I tell you in truth that those men 
know how to honor their mother, and that they are worthy to be 
called the sons of the woman. 

“ For they submit their heart to the inspirations of your heart, 
those who wish to divide labor among all the children of the great 
family according to the attractions and the fitnesses of each, in 
order that all together may produce the honey of the human hive, 
which shall afterwards serve for the nourishment of all. 

“ They know what woman is, those who wish to emancipate 
her love from all servitude, in order that it may never be prosti¬ 
tuted, and that the source of the generations may be pure. 

“ Rise up therefore, and come with me, my mother; come upon 
Calvary, to be present at my last symbolic triumph ; then we will 
live again in the whole of humanity. All the women will be you, 
and all the men will be me, and we two will make but one.” 

And the Christ, raising his mother and carrying her in his 
arms, as she had so often carried him when he was a little child, 
left the island of Patmos, and, walking upon the waves of the sea, 
went towards the shores of Palestine. 

At this moment the sun rose, and made the whole surface of 
the waters glisten, and the two celestial forms glided along with¬ 
out casting any shadow, and without leaving any trace, like a 
pair of fabulous birds, or like a light cloud, tinged with the 
colors of the dawn, and shaded with the reflections of the rainbow. 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


85 


EIGHTEENTH LEGEND. 

THE FAREWELL TO CALVARY. 

Jesus crossed the desolate fields of Judea and stopped upon the 
arid summit of ancient Calvary. 

There an angel with black brows and gloomy eye was seat¬ 
ed, enveloped in his two vast wings. It was Satan, the king of 
the old world. 

The rebellious angel was sad and fatigued, and he turned 
away his looks with disgust from an earth in which evil was 
without genius, and in which the ennui of a timid corruption had 
taken the place of the Titanian combats of the great ancient 
passions. He felt that in trying men he had taught the strong 
and deceived only the weak ; therefore he no longer deigned to 
tempt any one, and gloomy under his diadem of gold, he vaguely 
listened to the fall of souls into eternity, as to the monotonous 
drops of an eternal rain. 

Impelled by a force which was unknown to him, he had come 
and seated himself upon Calvary, and thinking of the death of 
the Man-God, he was jealous of him. 

He was a powerful and beautiful angel ; but he was jealous 
of the Christ, and that jealousy was symbolized by a serpent 
which buried its head in his bosom and gnawed his heart. 

Jesus and Mary stood before him and looked upon him in silence 
with great pity. Satan in his turn looked upon the Redeemer and 
smiled with bitterness. 

“ Have you come,” said he to him, “ to try and die a second 
time for a world which you could not save by your first execu¬ 
tion ? Have you tried in vain to change stones into bread to feed 
your people, and do you come to confess to me your defeat ? 
Have you fallen from the pinnacle of the temple, and has your 
divinity been broken by its fall ? 

“ Do you come to adore me, in order that you may possess 
the world ? Go! it is too late now, and I could not deceive 
you. The empire of the world has departed from those who 
adored me in your name; and I myself am tired of reigning 
without glory. If you are discouraged like me, take your seat 
by my side, and let us think no longer of God or of man.” 


86 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


“ I do not come to take a seat by your side,” said the Christ, 
“ I come to raise you, to forgive you and to console you, in order 
that you may cease to be wicked.” 

“ I want none of your forgiveness,” replied the bad angel, 
“ and it is not I who am wicked. 

“ The wicked one is he who gives to spirits a thirst for intel¬ 
ligence, and who envelopes truth in an impenetrable mystery. 
It is he who allows to their love the glimpse of an ideal virgin, 
of a beauty so intoxicating as to cast them into delirium, and 
who gives her to them only to tear her at once from their'first em¬ 
braces, and to load her with eternal chains. It is he in fine who 
has given liberty to the angels, and who has prepared infinite 
punishments for those who did not wish to be his slaves. 

“ The wicked one is he who has killed his innocent son under 
the pretext of avenging upon him the crimes of the guilty, and 
who has not pardoned the guilty, but has made the death of his 
son an additional crime on their part.” 

“ Why recall to me so bitterly the ignorance and the errors of 
men ?” returned Jesus. “ I know better than you do how much 
they have disfigured the image of God, and you yourself know 
very well that God does not resemble the image they have made 
of him. 

“ God gave you a thirst for intelligence only to quench it for 
ever with the waters of eternal truth. But why close your eyes 
and seek for daylight in yourself instead of looking at the sun ? 
If you sought the light where it is, you would find it, for in God 
there are neither shadows nor mysteries; the shadows are in 
yourself, and the mysteries are the weaknesses of your spirit. 

“ God did not give liberty to his creatures in order to take her 
from them again, but he gives her to them as a wife, and not as 
an illegitimate mistress ; he desires that they should possess her 
and not commit violence on her, for that chaste daughter of 
heaven cannot survive an outrage, and when her virgin dignity 
is wounded, liberty is dead to him who has misunderstood her. 

“ God does not desire slaves: it is revolted pride which has 
created servitude. The law of God is the royal right of his 
creatures; it is the title of their everlasting liberty. 

“ God did not kill his son, but the son of God voluntarily gave 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


87 


his life in order to kill death ; and this is why he now lives in 
the whole of humanity, and will save all the generations, for 
from trial to trial he leads the human family into the promised 
land, and they have already tasted its first fruits. I therefore 
come to announce to you, O Satan, that your last hour has 
arrived, unless you wish to be free and to reign with me over the 
world, by intelligence and love. 

“ But you shall no longer be called Satan, you shall resume 
the glorious name of Lucifer, and I will place a star on your 
brow and a torch in your hand. You shall be the genius of 
labor and of industry, because you have greatly striven, greatly 
suffered, and sadly thought! 

“ You shall stretch your wings from one pole to the other, and 
you shall hover over the world; glory shall reawaken at your 
voice. Instead of being the pride of isolation, you shall be the 
sublime pride of devotedness, and I will give to you the sceptre 
of earth and the key of heaven.” 

“ I do not understand you,” said the demon, sadly shaking his 
head, “ and I am not able to understand you. You know well 
that I can no longer love !” And with a sorrowful gesture the 
fallen angel showed to the Christ the wound that furrowed his 
chest and the serpent that gnawed his heart. 

Jesus turned towards his mother, and looked upon her: Mary 
understood the eyes of her son ; she approached the unhappy 
angel, and did not disdain to stretch forth her hand to him, and 
to touch his wounded breast. Then the serpent fell of itself and 
expired at the feet of Mary, who crushed its head ; the wound 
of the angel’s heart was healed, and a tear, the first he had shed, 
slowly descended upon the repentant countenance of Lucifer. 
That tear was precious as the blood of a God; and by it were 
ransomed all the blasphemies of hell. 

The regenerated angel prostrated himself upon Calvary, and 
weeping, kissed the place where the cross had formerly stood. 

Then he rose, triumphing with hope and radiant with love, and 
threw himself into the arms of the Christ. 

Then Calvary trembled : its arid summit was suddenly clothed 
with a fresh and brilliant verdure, and was crowned with flowers. 


8S 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


At the spot where the cross had stood, a young vine grew and 
was loaded with ripe and perfumed fruit. 

The Saviour then said : “ This is the vine which shall give the 
wine of universal communion, and it shall grow until all its 
branches shall embrace the whole earth.” 

Then taking his mother by the hand, he extended the other to 
the angel of liberty, and said : “ Let our symbolical forms now 
return to heaven; I shall not again come back to suffer death 
upon this mountain, Mary will no longer weep here for her son, 
and Lucifer will no longer drag here the remorse of his now 
effaced crime. 

“We are now but one spirit: the spirit of intelligence and of 
love, the spirit of liberty and of courage, the spirit of life which 
has triumphed over death.” 

Then all three took their flight through space; and rising to a 
prodigious height, they saw the earth and all its kingdoms stretch¬ 
ing their roads towards each other like arms intertwined ; they 
saw the fields already green with the first fraternal crops, and 
from East to West they heard the mysterious prelude of the 
chant of union. And towards the north, upon the crest of a 
bluish mountain, they saw portrayed the gigantic figure of a man 
who raised his arms towards heaven. Upon his arms could still 
be seen the recent marks of the chains he had just broken, and 
his chest was scarred like that of Lucifer. Under his right foot, 
upon the sharpest peak of the mountain, still palpitated the body 
of a vulture, the head and wings of which hung down. 

That mountain was the Caucasus; and the delivered giant 
who stretched forth his hands was the ancient Prometheus. 

Thus the great divine and human symbols met and saluted 
each other under the same heaven; then they disappeared to 
give place to God himself, who came to dwell for ever with men. 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


89 


NINETEENTH LEGEND. 

. THE LAST VISION. 

Above material forms and the terrestrial atmosphere there is a 
region whither souls rush when freed from their chains. 

It is there that the ethereal aromas, obedient to the thought, 
clothe it in succession with all the splendors of the ideal form, 
and people with marvellous beauties the spiritual world of poetry 
and of visions. 

It is into this region that our most beautiful dreams transport 
us during our sleep, and it is hither that, during their laborious 
watchings, inspiration elevated the genius of the great poets, to 
whom the feeling of harmony has, in all ages, given a foresight 
of the great destinies of humanity. It is here that images live 
and analogies reign. For poetry is in the images; and the har¬ 
mony of images is essentially analogical. 

It was in this ideal region that Eschylus saw Prometheus 
suffer, and that Moses heard the words of Jehovah. It was here 
that the greatest poet of the East, the eagle of Patmos, and singer 
of the Apocalypse, saw the Christian church under the form of 
a woman in labor who was painfully bringing forth the man of 
the future. It was in this marvellous world of poetry and of 
visions that God appeared to him veiled in light and holding in 
his hand the eternal Gospel, which slowly opened while the 
plagues scourged the world, and the destroying angels cleared 
the earth in order to make place for the city of holy unity and of 
harmony, the New Jerusalem, which descended from heaven 
already built, because the idea of harmony exists in God, and 
will be realized of itself upon the earth when men shall under¬ 
stand it. 

The glorious figure of the Christ, after having traversed the 
earth, reascended into that ethereal region, and there the Re¬ 
deemer showed to the formerly rebellious, and henceforth rege¬ 
nerate angel, the great assembly of the martyrs. 

There were united all the victims of human despotism, all 
those who had preferred to die rather than to lie to their con¬ 
science. The victims of Antiochus, the martyrs of ancient 
Rome, and those executed by modern Rome. 


90 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


Some for legitimate beliefs, others for illusions and dreams, 
they had courageously braved the tyranny of men, and all were 
pure before God; for they had suffered in .order to preserve the 
noblest and the most beautiful of his gifts: liberty. 

Long had their souls, clothed in white robes spotted with blood, 
groaned under the altar and cried for justice; but at last, the day 
had come, and all together, bearing palms in their hands, they 
advanced to meet the Redeemer. 

The Christ appeared in the midst of them,.between his mother 
and the angel of repentance, and asked them what vengeance 
they wished to take on their persecutors. 

“ Lord, let their souls be given to us, in order that we may 
dispose of them for eternity, as they disposed of us in time.” 

The Christ then gave to them the keys of heaven and of hell, 
and said to them: “ The souls of your persecutors are yours.” 

Then a cry of joy and triumph resounds from the heights of 
heaven even to the depths of the abyss; the souls of the martyrs 
open the gates of hell and extend the hand to their executioners. 
Every reprobate finds one of the elect for a protector: heaven 
enlarges its circumference, and the virgin mother weeps with joy 
at seeing crowd around her so many children whom she had 
thought for ever lost. 

While the whole of heaven smiled at this magnificent spectacle, 
a new sun was seen to rise upon the earth, and night drew back 
her veil towards the west. The dark clouds of the past fled 
laden with phantoms, which were the shadows of the great ex¬ 
tinct monarchies and of old vanished beliefs. 

Between the night and the rising dawn, the twilight whitened 
the head of an old man who was seated with his face turned 
towards the east. It was the traveller of Christian centuries, 
the outcast of barbarous civilization, the type of the parias, the 
old Ahasuerus who was resting himself. The people had at 
last a country, and the Wandering Jew had obtained his pardon. 

The earth had become the temple of God. Universal associ¬ 
ation had realized Christian charity. All lived and labored for 
each, and each for all. Each enjoyed in peace the fruit of his 
labors, and no one of the children of God perished with hunger 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


91 


near the table of his father, for equitably recompensed labor 
made life easy for all. 

Association had increased a hundred fold the riches of the 
earth, and the union of all interests had given to the labors of 
man a direction so divine and a power so marvellous, that the 
seasons themselves had changed, and there was, according 
to the promise of the apostle, a new heaven and a new earth; 
and Jesus said to the angel of liberty and of genius : “ This is 
the work which you must accomplish. This is the new city of 
intelligence and of love. The earth is ready, it thrills with 
hope. Men see it now as it was formerly seen by the prophet, 
covered with ashes and with bones; but a new life already stirs 
under those ashes, and a divine impulse is working in those dry 
bones. Soon they will rise at the call of the new spirit, and 
a new people will cover the fields of earth. Humanity will 
then wake out of a long sleep, and it will appear to it that it 
sees daylight for the first time !” 

Having uttered these words, the Christ prostrated himself be¬ 
fore the throne of his Father, saying : “ Lord, may thy will be 
done on earth as it is done in heaven!” 

And the virgin, who is the type of regenerated woman ; and 
the angel of liberty, who had become the genius of order and 
of harmony ; and all the martyrs, who were consoled ; and all the 
reprobates, who were penitent and were freed from their suffer¬ 
ings ; answered all together that mysterious word which unites 
the will of the creature to that of the Creator, and all human 
forces to the divine power: Amen ! 


92 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


EPILOGUE. 


We have now to offer these legends to all our brothers who 
labor with us upon the social edifice. We hope they will assist 
the intelligent and serious men of the people to understand the 
symbolism of the Gospel, that always true book, which contains 
so much depth in the simplicity of its teachings and in the artless 
poetry of its parables. We have not had the intention of writing 
a new gospel, but we have endeavored to apply to the diseases 
of modern society the always powerful virtue of the ancient 
gospel spirit, by making the Christ speak as we can think he 
would speak, should he again come among us. 

Each can supply the insufficiency of these legends. The 
perfect man may be represented as struggling with all human 
imperfections, and it is in this sense that St. John the Evangelist 
says, at the end of his mystic recital: “ If all the actions and 
all the words of the Christ were written in detail, the whole 
world, I think, would not contain the books that should be 
written.” 

We have entitled this work “ The Last Incarnation,” because 
we herein seek to explain how the divine Word, after having 
been incarnated in a man who is the head and the model of 
humanity, must at last be incarnated in the whole of humanity 
by the communion of all to the intelligence of one same spirit, 
and to the fraternity of one same love. 

May we have succeeded in our efforts to communicate our 
faith to those who doubt, and our hope to those who are dis¬ 
couraged ! for, at this period, when all seems to be perishing, 
we have the certainty of being present at the revival of the 
world. 

Already socialism is no longer a system : it is the universal 


THE LAST INCARNATION. 


93 


religion of all active intelligences and of all young and living 
hearts. 

Christianity is at last about to realize its promises; and philo¬ 
sophy? arriving at unity by means of synthesis, is becoming 
essentially religious. Reason is also about to be reconciled for 
ever with Faith. 

The time of superstitions has passed away. Men can no 
longer be amused by mysterious images, no longer can they 
be made to tremble by inexplicable enigmas. 

God has given to us the intellect in order that we may under¬ 
stand, and the heart in order that we may love : and by the 
feeling he gives to our hearts of his harmonies, he raises our 
spirit even to himself. 

God being supreme wisdom, has created everything for an 
end, and has given to all his creatures the means of attaining 
the end which he assigns to them. He preserves harmony 
among the stars by the laws of attraction, and it is by the same 
laws that he has regulated beforehand the destinies of men. 

The attractions are therefore proportional to the destinies. 

Now, the different attractions all have harmonic unity for their 
end, but they must cause all wills to act in different circles 
magnificently co-ordained among themselves. An immense 
chain of harmony connects with God all his works, and from 
series to series he distributes life to all beings. 

The series distributes the harmonies. 

Analogical relations exist between the series, and are as the 
steps of the ladder of science, of that ladder of gold which the 
prophet formerly saw during his sleep, and which assisted the 
spirits to ascend from earth to heaven, and to descend from 
heaven to earth. 

These are the bases of the new science ; they are founded 
upon all philosophical and religious traditions ; and we can say 
that they are not the principles of a school, but the theorems of 
the most advanced science, and the incontestable dogmas of true 
universal Religion. 


THE END. 


H 153 82 i 


/ 














U '* *° \ ‘ 

■ ^ ‘life. 
y\ -*&?• /\ * 

/v <\ 4 /T?r* o* *•.*• /v <. 

> 0 0 * * 4 • k * * ♦ *0 e, ® " • * <£ 

• -rStttv.* *P c *M‘/}7?? 2 * O 

1*» 4*V 


> ^°- 

,♦ <,K o . _ 

,/ °* ••”.« A 0 ' 

V* *1^4 O* ^ • 

■♦ :&£\ '* 



^ 0 « 



•*\y %.'*.T.* A° 

v .vv*, o. <r .• ••. 

^ .'£fe* \/ V.** 




\PV 




X 

"** V*w * v ^ ^ 

- %/ A;V..‘ •' 

q ^ • Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. , 

»° b [' Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 



Treatment Date: July 2005 


*• ft) sjwr* 

*1*^. a v PreservationTechnologies 

* * “* * ’ 



^ A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

<^V 111 Thomson Park Dnve 

Cranberry Township, PA 16066 


.c*V 


(724) 779-2111 


igies I 

VATION : 

B6 







A* 


^ - - * A° <s> 

v «*Jm*w* *v. 4?^ •!••- > BBS 

V #fe •* 
i y\ <? \ -SR* : 


; •* 




[c^ o '...• A ^ *>®T* .&*■ V •. 

I *'*JkZ* °o 4-r *ir^w' ^ 0° '''/ml* % 

:§mt£' "b# p2p|&*. ^ 0 < ’’c 


• • • 


A v <*>, 

S' aP <■*•*’• > 


• m • 


A U 




> % A V«* - ' 
* ** * 


h <r. -’-Tv** <o T V5. - 

r 6 «" • * . /\v *»* * * 

•£ f. U sL/r>*Z 'r ^<5 


-> *„ 




o.*« 'V 

II 0 • ■ • ♦ ’'V 

* A* * <SS\M])'^* '9T a 


V^.-V^V 0 ... V^V .• 

* -iKfc v/ / 



vP 


*• A^V' , ^» «* 



c5* '^r» « 

A^ S ^ °* ^ ^ - * 

Xr O *».>• A * m *,. i 

*•„ a «u. 0 « * 




* 0 V o. * 



r oV 


0 H 0 


^ aO * 



.*'** **£ 
, u S’L/rK? * 



£ <3* i 

*V h .. V'** T »°.'° 



v r * 


,* ., 



/ \-.. 

^ v % -S|K* /\ v rr . 

.•^4. ^ t t'jNB&g* jr /^|4. 

^o* :$sm^- ° ? . 5 ‘^Sa*. ^ 

,« 4?^ ’.^^r, N , 

f°° ^ *»-’•’ s « <s ' 

^ 4 ? > v v ... 

: diig\ %<? : 

^ M* %■ 




it ^ 



























